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August 2001 Archive
Prime Radio StationsABC, Australia World
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August
2001 Archive Links- internally where there are follow-up stories we try, at the end of each story, to put a pertinent link to the top of the next relevant story. Regarding external links see note at end of page. RNW August Comment considers the advantages likely from digital and satellite radio. RNW July Comment looks at the value of International Radio Services. Quality or size? RNW
June Comment looks at what we
should be "rating" for radio.
2001-08-31: A day for the disciplinarians in North America with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in fining mode and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) having yet another go at Howard Stern. In the US, the FCC has proposed a fine of $140000 on Alaskan broadcaster Peninsula Communications Inc. for operating without a licence. Peninsular was ordered to stop operating seven translators in various Alaskan communities but ignored the order intentionally according to the FCC. The Commission has also said Peninsula must file an affidavit within 10 days showing that the translators in question have gone off the air, or lose its other full station and translator licences. The FCC is also, according to Robert Feder's column in the Chicago Sun Times, looking at more complaints against shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller's show on Q-101. Feder says seven complaints were filed by David Edward Smith on behalf of his Chicago-based Citizens for Community Values, all concerning sexually explicit material that aired on "Mancow's Morning Madhouse" between March 6 and May 17. Smith, who has made two previous complaints that led the FCC to fine Emmis-owned Q-101 $14000, included transcripts of the segments with each of his complaints. Feder says Muller said he was unaware of the complaints, but defended his show as appropriate for an adult male audience. "We do everything we can to keep within the legal boundaries," he said. "Any time there's sexual talk going on, we try to have a medical person there." "We're trying to get information out to adult men in a very frank way. If it gets too shocking, we shut it down." In Canada, the CBSC acted on two complaints about Howard Stern, one from an individual concerning one episode and one from MediaWatch enumerating examples of offensive programming after a month of monitoring Stern's show on CILQ-FM Toronto. The complainants expressed concern about sexist and racist comments. On the allegation of racist comments, the Council decided that a show segment on immigration did not constitute unduly discriminatory comment because it was nothing more than the expression of Stern's political opinion. It ruled against Stern, however, on complaints, which related to an item on the extent to which a Playboy Playmate was prepared to go to appear on the show and Stern's subsequent "verbal assault" of a call-in listener. The CBSC panel found that the "suggestions" made by Stern to the manager of a Playmate eager to appear on the Show had gone too far. It said that "the cumulative effect of the suggestions that the Playmate smell underwear, be rolled up naked in a rug and forced to ride in an elevator, eat a carrot in Stern's lap while she is naked and eat food out of a dog dish while naked is demeaning and degrading in the extreme." It also found that Stern's treatment of a caller who had phoned in to exclaim her disapproval of the Playmate dialogue also went too far. Stern had reacted, among other things, by suggesting that the caller "eat a taco out of [his] crotch", calling her a "big fat cow", then a "fat, ugly girl who can't get squat", suggesting she had a moustache, accusing her of living in an apartment with cockroaches and so on. The Panel concluded that "the comments of the host are both racist and sexist. These comments are not borderline. They are extreme." "They have no place on the airwaves in this country,"it commented. Previous CBSC: Previous Emmis: Previous FCC: Previous Feder: Previous Muller: Previous Stern: CBSC news release: FCC ruling: 2001-08-31: Ireland's Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) claims it has caused no fewer than 36 unlicensed transmitters to go off air in the past several weeks in an unprecedented crack down on pirate radio stations according to a report by Harry Browne in the Irish Times. These numbers would indicate that most of the country's pirate stations have now been closed (See RNW Aug 10). The paper says that this "zealous cleansing of the airwaves, the removal of most of the state's radio stations, has been accompanied by little drama, publicity - or resistance." It contrasts this with the uproar that would have occurred had the state shut down the printing presses of 36 local newspapers. The approach has been to target the owners of the premises where the transmitters are located, rather than the station operators themselves. The paper says the ODTR claims that its campaign has nothing to do with the imminent arrival on the Irish scene of more licensed commercial stations, which include dance station Spin FM and country station Star FM, but pirate operators are sceptical about this. "They point," says the report, "to the fact that the first Dublin hilltop targeted last month was home to - you guessed it - dance- and country music pirates." The ODTR says it is coincidence but could not "offer an adequate explanation as to why 2001 is the right time to enforce legislation that dates from 1926 and 1988." The paper says that most people would agree that licensed stations should receive reasonable protection and an even larger number that emergency services should be protected. "However," writes Browne, "this crackdown goes far beyond such concerns; in fact, before the purge, the busy Dublin FM spectrum had by and large been a good example of people behaving responsibly without regulation. Anarchy in action, if you like." He also comments on the success of the pirates, noting, "In Limerick, Galtee Radio is widely seen as giving the licensed stations a run for their money - local businesses know it and advertise heavily. (Ludicrously, these advertisers could be liable for prosecution.)" "It's hardly a coincidence that, as I write, Limerick is the only place where most pirates stubbornly fly the flag." He also quotes on observer as saying that the money to be made will mean that the illegal transmitters will soon be back from new sites. Previous Browne: Previous ODTR: Irish Times report: 2001-08-30: Regent Communications has announced a $39.6 million cash deal to acquire ComCorp's seven radio stations in the Lafayette, Louisiana, market. The stations involved are five FMs -- KMDL-FM, KRKA-FM, KFTE-FM, KTDY-FM and KPEL-FM - and two AMs - KPEL-AM and KROF-AM. Regent says it is to finance the deal from its existing credit facilities and expects to close in the final quarter of this year. Terry Jacobs, Regent's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "This attractive acquisition marks our entry into Lafayette, the nation's 123rd ranked radio revenue market. "We are well positioned to create value as this seven station cluster is already consolidated, providing us with the opportunity to focus our efforts on growing revenues and cash flow via programming and sales improvements." "As a result, we expect this transaction to be accretive in just its first year." Regent has also announced that it has completed its previously announced $20 million purchase of six stations in the Peoria, Illinois, market from the Cromwell Group (See RNW May 17). Involved here are five FMs - WGLO-FM, WPPY-FM, WRVP-FM, WFYR-FM and WIXO-FM - and WVEL-AM. The deal comprised $14 million in cash and $6 million in Regent stock. Previous Jacobs: Previous Regent: Regent web site: 2001-08-30: UK digital radio consortium MXR, which launched its West Midlands digital multiplex on Wednesday, is to run a two-week promotion campaign on Chrysalis Radio's Midland stations Heart FM and Galaxy. Chrysalis is a member of the consortium and its creative services team has recorded the promotions. Previous Chrysalis: Previous MXR: 2001-08-30: The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has proposed two new commercial radio services for Tasmania in its plans for the region. The commercial services, in Burnie and Scottsdale, would be in addition to new community radio services in George Town, the Northern Midlands, Scottsdale and Hobart and an open narrowcasting radio service in Hobart. In addition, the ABA is proposing to extend the licence areas of community radio services 7HFC Hobart and 7RGY Geeveston. Previous ABA: ABA web site (links to PDF of plans): 2001-08-30: ABC Radio Networks has agreed a deal to syndicate New York talk radio host Sean Hannity across the US from September 10. Hannity, who airs from 1500-1800 local in New York on weekdays, joined WABC in 1997, a year after he had been brought to New York to co-host Fox TV's Hannity and Colmes show. He began his radio career in Huntsville, Alabama and then moved to WGST-FM in Atlanta, where his high ratings attracted Fox News' attention. Previous ABC (US): 2001-08-29: Contrary to our report on Saturday, US commentator Paul Harvey is not going to be off air until September 10 but will be back at the microphone today according to R&R. The publications says that, according to ABC News Radio VP Chris Berry, the doctors who examined Harvey on Monday cancelled further procedures because his voice is strengthening quickly. R& R says that Harvey will host the morning newscast and The Rest of the Story today and, if all goes smoothly, should be back anchoring his midday newscast soon, perhaps as early as next week. Previous Harvey: R&R web site: 2001-08-29: Two tales today of what could well be termed public interest radio albeit neither station involved is exactly heading the ratings for the numbers interested. The first, in New York City, is WNYE-FM, which currently airs educational and ethnic programming but is under threat because owner, the New York City Board of Education, says it wants to quit managing the station. Schools Chancellor Harold O. Levy, reports the New York Times, has proposed turning it over to a public broadcaster, WNYC, and changing the programming to feature classical music and school-curriculum shows. It adds that, in response, "To-the-barricades advertisements are appearing in the region's ethnic newspapers." "In recent weeks, a total of 3,800 letters and e- mail messages protesting the possible change have been received in the office of Ninfa Segarra, the board president. Swarms of additional petitions are being circulated in churches and civic centres and on Web sites." Among the programmes listed by the Times are such gems as "Ukrainian Melody," "The Croatian Radio Half-Hour," "Haitian Perspective," "Cosmos FM Greek Radio," the Polish "Radio Most," and news from Radio France International, which the paper says are to many of their listeners, "lifelines to their homelands." WNYE- FM was founded in 1938 and in the late 1970's began leasing its airtime to ethnic- program producers during the city's fiscal crisis. Last November, Chancellor Levy announced his intention to turn over the operation of the board's radio and television stations to WNYC and to WNET, Channel 13, arguing that they could run the stations more effectively and improve their programming. He contended that nobody listened to the radio station, and that he intended to increase its audience and upgrade its educational content. Certainly the station is low in the ratings; recent Arbitron figures show a weekly audience of 80,300, compared with 512,200 for WNYC-FM, half of whose output is classical music. Foreign language programming is under a quarter of its output, much of the rest being educational, but accounts for more than 70 percent of an annual budget of more than $800,000. Ethnic producers say that ratings services have consistently undercounted foreign-language listeners. Trevor Wilkins, who produces a Caribbean show on WNYE, said that feedback to his show indicated that it reached 150,000 Haitians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Grenadians, Barbadians, Bahamians and Antiguans in the New York region. Elena Maroulleti, executive producer of Aktina FM, a bilingual Cypriot Greek show, estimated that 500,000 members of the metropolitan region's Greek and Cypriot communities listen regularly to WNYE- FM's Greek-language programs. "We have nothing against classical music, but WNYE is the only station in America that offers such a diversity of foreign programming," she said. The other station is in Sydney, Australia, where 2RPH, the city's only radio station for the print handicapped, is featured in a Sydney Morning Herald report. 2RPH is among 207 radio stations and five television stations which broadcast to indigenous, ethnic and remote communities stations for whom the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia has just launched its funding submission for the next three years. 2RPH is run on volunteers and it's annual budget is Aus$160,000 (around USD 80,000). It began 19 years ago in a council's chambers but is now run out of a studio and is one of ten such stations in the country. Overall the Australian Community broadcasting sector has grown by around 60% over the past five years and the Community Broadcasting Association is seeking an increase in funding from Aus$5.4 million a year to $12.7 million to fund expansion, training and updating technology to digital. New York Times report: Sydney Morning Herald report: 2001-08-29: Yet another substantial jump in Internet listening has been reported by Measurecast whose Internet Radio Index now stands at 229 compared with a base of 100 at the start of this year. The organisation reports that of its top 25 stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL), 16 reported increases during the week to August 26 and 17 enjoyed an increase in audience size. At the very top, the rankings by TTSL were again static: The top 5 individual stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were (with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets): 1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 132623 (128194); CP 38950 (35565) - Position unchanged, listening up but still less than a fortnight ago. 2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 119975 (107372); CP 21274 (16346) - Position unchanged, listening up substantially. 3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 97351 (106959); CP 14462 (16150) - Position unchanged, listening down. 4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 73420 (61,332); CP 10,572 (10,168) - Position unchanged, listening up. 5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM TTSL 47,776 (53618) CP 6,693 (6841) - Position unchanged, listening down. Previous MeasureCast ratings: MeasureCast web site: 2001-08-28: US radio giant Clear Channel has now announced its expected re-organisation, which will involve operations in eight geographic regions, each under the leadership of a senior vice president (SVP). The geographic divisions are in turn divided into "trading areas" under a regional vice president, reporting to the divisional SVP, who manages a larger market and oversees a group of smaller adjacent markets. Announcing the changes, Clear Channel Radio President and Chief Operating Officer John Hogan said, "We believe this structure is the most effective way to maximize the synergy of our unique 50-state reach for our customers, our listeners and our operations." "No one in the industry has…nor can anyone duplicate…the national footprint Clear Channel Radio has assembled." "This geographic alignment links every Clear Channel market so we can more efficiently operate and sell our radio stations, while reinforcing our commitment to local radio." The company's statement is explicit in the aims behind the re-organisation, saying, "The new organizational structure was crafted to support the radio company's vision of super-serving its advertising customers." "That vision packages radio stations, market clusters and geographic regions along the same lines as advertisers' trade areas." "By assembling responsibilities along geographic lines, Clear Channel Radio enhances its ability to deliver customized, regional packages uniquely designed to reach an advertiser's targeted market." "To help execute these regional sales opportunities, Clear Channel Radio recently announced it is adding 500 new account executives company wide by October 1." The 8 SVPs are: Northeast - Rob Williams, SVP, promoted from Market Manager of Clear Channel Radio's Philadelphia cluster: Mid Atlantic - Jim Shea, currently SVP: Southeast - Peter Ferrara, currently SVP: Midwest - Dave Crowl, currently SVP: Plains/Northwest - Jay Meyers, currently SVP: Southwest - JD Freeman, SVP, promoted from Market Manager of the Phoenix cluster: Southwest/Central - John Cullen, SVP, currently President, Clear Channel International: West Coast - Jim Donahoe, currently SVP. In addition to the above, Hogan is to take charge of the New York and Los Angeles markets. Previous Clear Channel: Previous Hogan: Clear Channel statement. 2001-08-28: Commissioner Gloria Tristani has announced that she will leave the Federal Communications Commission on September 7 after almost four years as a Commissioner. She was appointed by President Clinton and took office in November 1997 along with then Commissioner Michael Powell who now chairs the Commission. He has thanked her for "her outstanding contribution to the Commission over the last four years." Tristani is returning to New Mexico where she is to mount a bid to win New Mexico's Democratic primary and then stand against the current Republican Senator for New Mexico, Pete Domenici, in 2002. Previous FCC: Previous Powell: Previous Tristani: Powell statement: Tristani statement: 2001-08-27: This week, various articles in US papers pointed us towards considering the questions of power, its use, or abuse, in US radio circles, and what we would consider an appropriate legal or regulatory framework in which to make judgements. First of all, the general question of how far a large company can legitimately use its immense power and in US radio circles this pretty well has to bring in Clear Channel, which now owns some 1200 stations. In the Washington Post, Frank Ahrens reports on a particular incident involving the multi-headed giant and a competitor station, in this case Bonneville-owned Washington Top 40 station Z104. Its general manager Mark O'Brien bought, as part of a promotional contest, some $3000 worth of tickets to the annual Wango Tango concert that is held at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. All straightforward - the tickets were paid for and the station started its promotion with the intention of flying some 30 people to the concert. In less than two days, O'Brien received a call from a Beverley Hills lawyer. He asked why the promotion was still continuing; it turned out he had faxed a letter to the Z104 request line saying the name Wango Tango was "service marked" and that since Clear Channel owned the company putting on the concert (formerly SFX Entertainment), only Clear Channel stations were allowed to promote the show or give away tickets to it. Z104, he said, must stop or be sued and within two days the suit, Clear Channel v. Bonneville, was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Bonneville tried negotiating, asking if the tickets could still be given as prizes but the name not mentioned, only to be told that all tickets were non-transferable. In the end it had to settle for returning the tickets and getting its money back. Bonneville said its lawyers thought they could have won Clear Channel's suit, but they chose, as a small company, not to get into a fight. Clear Channel's response? "There's no question that we play tough," says Pam Taylor, spokeswoman for Clear Channel Radio. "We're a strong competitor. But we play by the rules and we play fair. We're big, and that angers people. So be it. Talk to Wal-Mart; they've dealt with that for years." RNW comment: From our perspective the Clear Channel response is intellectually challenged and the response that of a bully. We fear they would almost certainly get away with much of what they are doing (see RNW Aug 9 regarding a law suit against the giant by a Denver promoter claiming they have abused their position). he case to us is one where, as a matter of public principle, legal authorities, not weak companies, should automatically examine such reports to determine if there is a case to be answered. Otherwise more and more pushes will be made by giant companies to the detriment of smaller competitors and ultimately of the public as US anti-Trust law has recognised in the past. Our view on such matters is straightforward-if it found that there has been abuse by a "monopolistic" company of its strength in the market, penalties should be automatic and severe with the intent not of applying them but of deterring companies whose lawyers and accountants will take them as far as they think it commercially worthwhile. In a case of this nature, the obvious ultimate penalty would be to give Clear Channel a month after any judgement of gross abuse to divest itself of SFX -to the highest bidder, even if the bid be of a dollar. Won't happen but concertgoers, musicians and pretty well everyone but Clear Channel would benefit in the long run if the fear of such action were in corporate minds! It wouldn't stop the giants having an advantage but it would restrain abuses of power. On now to another case where there may have been some rather dumb action in Boston where, according to a report by Dean Johnson in the Boston Herald, syndicated shock-jocks Opie and Anthony (Gregg Hughes and Anthony Cumia)and had begun their return to the Boston airwaves by promising to make life miserable for former employer and rival rock station WAAF-FM. They apparently made good on it by instructing employees of current outlet, WCBN-FM, to disrupt a WAAF blood drive at Natick's Crowne Plaza Hotel on Monday. That prank led to an incident that Natick police Lt. Nicholas Mabardy said will likely result in assault and battery charges against a ``WBCN-affiliated person'' who allegedly assaulted WAAF disc jockey Matty Blake at about 5 p.m. The WCBN employees had left before police arrived but apparently photographs were taken of the incident, which Mabardy said are likely to lead to identification of individuals involved. If police file a complaint, Blake has to decide if he wants to press charges. RNW comment: Another case here where European attitudes to legal action differ from those of the US. To us, if an incident was clearly illegal and there is evidence, it is a matter of public interest not individual action that should determine the future of charges. And if there is clear evidence that actions were ordered by individuals who were not present at the scene of the crime, the responsibility of those ordering the action is equivalent to that of a Mafia "godfather" directing a criminal action. In yet another case, that of a lawsuit against Chicago shock-jock Erich "Mancow" Muller by Janet Dahl, wife of another Chicago host Steve Dahl, Robert Feder in the Sun Times says that the settlement of the case is reported to have cost Muller and his station -" or, more correctly, their insurance company" more than a million dollars. Feder reflects on the fact that Janet Dahl said the issue was not money but protecting her "good name". He concludes, "Without a retraction, apology or even a precise disclosure of the settlement terms, it's tough to see how the outcome helps restore Janet Dahl's good name, her avowed motivation for the suit." "But let's not be too judgmental here. Perhaps she plans to donate the money to a worthier cause than her lawyers and her personal bank account." RNW comment: one here, where we generally think US law generally preferable to its European counterparts, particularly the libel laws of the UK. And if it's not about money (which in public interest terms the remedy to libel cannot be), financial penalties are surely inappropriate as such. On the other hand sentencing "Mancow" to a month of one hour daily reads of a statement dictated by Janet Dahl at times selected by her and further declaring him and his company ineligible to sue over any content or challenge it on any other basis than demonstrable untruths would surely be a pretty good deterrent to future lewd remarks by Mancow against individuals. And, as any such sentence would only follow breaches of US libel law, it would not be too restrictive of responsible freedom of speech unlike the case in the UK. Previous Ahrens: Previous Bonneville: Previous Clear Channel: Previous Columnists: Previous Dahl: Previous Feder: Previous Johnson: Previous Muller: Previous Opie and Anthony: Boston Herald - Johnson: Chicago Sun Times - Feder: Washington Post - Ahrens: 2001-08-27: A shake-up in Sydney talk radio that could see top-rated breakfast host Alan Jones leaving 2UE for the Macquarie Network's struggling 2GB may be on the cards according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The paper reports that talk of his likely departure from 2UE has grown from his refusal so far to negotiate a new contract with 2UE and that his colleagues expect him to move by the end of the year. Although 2GB executives have denied that they are talking to Jones or his agent, the paper says a senior source at the Macquarie Network said they were hoping Jones would be in the breakfast slot at 2GB next year but starting slightly later. The paper also reports speculation that Jones and former Australia Nine Network boss and BskyB satellite network chief Sam Chisholm may buy significant equity holdings in Harbor Radio, which controls the Macquarie Network's two stations, 2GB and 2CH. Also tipped to move over to 2GB is sports commentator Ray Hadley, who has rejected 2UE's latest offer to stay at the station next year. If Jones does move, there are suggestions current breakfast host Philip Clark - who joined the station this year from the ABC - would move to the drive shift held by former Federal Labor minister Graham Richardson. 2UE's morning presenter, John Laws, who has recently re-signed for another five years, currently benefits from a significant listener handover from Jones and the paper quotes a well-placed source as saying, "John Singleton (2GB owner) knows it's his one and only chance to make an inroad into 2UE's market dominance. Its not just about 2GB succeeding, but about breaking 2UE's stranglehold on the market." 2UE was bought by Southern Cross Broadcasting as part of its acquisition of the Lamb family's radio interests in an Aus$90 million deal in March (See RNW March 23). The Jones/Laws duo were estimated to bring in around 70% of 2UE's advertising revenue. Previous 2UE: Previous Hadley: Previous Jones: Previous Laws: Previous Macquarie: Previous Richardson: Previous Singleton: Previous Southern Cross: Sydney Morning Herald report: 2001-08-26: The UK was fairly busy with licence activity this week but it was quiet elsewhere. In Australia there was nothing on the radio front.~ In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been involved in a few routine renewals and has also approved Astral Media's take over of Quebec stations CHRD-FM Drummondville and CFEI-FM Saint-Hyacinthe, which have overall been unprofitable in the past three years. The Commission considered concern about the concentration of radio ownership in Quebec but concluded that the deal was allowable within its rules and could ensure the long-term viability of the stations. The commission has also approved a new French-language FM station at Winnipeg, Manitoba, to broadcast programming from the CBC's network service La Chaîne culturelle complemented by about 20 minutes per week of local programming. It has has renewed the licence of ethnic station CHKG-FM Vancouver and of CKCX Sackville, New Brunswick, which rebroadcasts the programs of Radio Canada International and CBC North Québec, and also receives access programming from the James Bay Cree Communications Society and Taqramiut Nipingat Inc., the Inuit communications society of the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. There was nothing of note in Ireland, but in the UK the Radio Authority has been fairly busy. In Kent, it has asked for public interest comment on the acquisition by the Kent Messenger newspaper group of the Canterbury local radio station CTFM and in Sunderland, it has announced that only the existing holder, Sun FM, has applied for the Sunderland licence and that this will not be handled under its fast track procedure. The authority has also renewed for 8 years the Gloucester area AM and FM licences of existing holders Classic Gold Digital Ltd., broadcasting as Classic Gold 774 and Cotswold Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GWR Group plc), broadcasting as Severn Sound. No competing applications had been received for either licence. It has also renewed for the same period the Greater London AM licence held by Country 1035 Ltd., broadcasting as Ritz 1035, on the basis that the company will be providing a service on the third London digital multiplex. On the digital front, the Authority has advertised the Leicester digital multiplex and has awarded the Bradford & Huddersfield digital multiplex to the sole applicant, the Wireless Group's TWG Digital. As well as carrying BBC Radio Leeds, TWG is proposing seven commercial services. These are: Current chart hits - The Pulse (provider: The Wireless Group plc): Classic pop hits - Big AM (provider: The Wireless Group plc): Asian - Sunrise FM (provider: Sunrise Radio Ltd.): 60s, 70s, 80s Adult contemporary - Provider: to be advertised: Music from films and shows - Flix (provider: Infinity Media Ltd.): Young Asian - Provider: Asian Sound Ltd.: Club and pop dance - Kiss (provider: Emap Performance Ltd.) The US has been fairly quiet but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has red-flagged a number of deals, primarily in terms of concentration of ownership (See RNW Aug 24). Previous Astral: Previous CRTC: Previous FCC: Previous UK Radio Authority: Previous Licence News: CRTC web site: FCC web site: UK Radio Authority web site: 2001-08-26: A Birmingham, UK radio stunt that went badly wrong has been getting a run in most UK newspapers. The Capital Radio-owned station had heard of a New Zealand competition in which contestants sat on dry ice and staged a road show competition to see who could sit on dry ice the longest to win tickets to introduce an act at Monday's Party in the Park event, featuring Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell and Steps. Station spokesman, Mike Owen, said, "We took medical advice and had help in attendance." Fortunately for the station all four contestants involved had signed disclaimers as all four needed hospital treatment for burns from the ice (temperature around minus 80 Centigrade). One girl's legs, thighs and lower back were blackened by the ice, and a 12-years-old boy suffered burns to his buttocks. The station stopped the contest after an hour when the contestants complained of pain; all were taken to hospital and three then transferred to a special burns unit. Owen said all the contestants were to be VIP guests at Monday's Capital FM's Party in the Park in London. Previous Capital: UK Guardian report: 2001-08-25: Veteran ABC Radio News commentator, Chicago-based Paul Harvey who only returned to the airwaves on Monday after a virus affected his vocal chords, is going off the air again. He said in his Friday broadcast that he is scheduled for further outpatient treatment next week that the doctors say will improve his voice quality. He is expected back on air on September 10:. There was worse news from ABC for another Chicago veteran. Kevin Matthews and his morning show colleagues who were fired on Wednesday by ABC-owned WZZN-FM. His show has fared badly and was 22nd overall in the in the latest ratings. Reporting on the firing, Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun Times, quotes WZZN program director Bill Gamble as saying, "As we continue to listen to the audience and move 'The Zone' in a more music-intensive, contemporary direction focusing on the '80s, '90s and today, it has become apparent that the very essence of Kevin's talk-based show has been lost." Matthews joined the ABC station in September 1998 when it was classic rocker "CD 94.7." It abruptly switched to an '80s format as "The Zone" last November. Previous Feder: Previous Harvey: Sun Times report: 2001-08-25: Sirius Satellite Radio has announced an agreement with BMW, North America, to offer its service in selected new BMW's from the second quarter of next year. BMW will offer Sirius radios as an accessory in its 3 series, 5 series and X5 vehicles. Other auto deals with Sirius include Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Volvo and Jeep whilst rival XM's investors include General Motors and American Honda Motor Co. Inc. Previous Sirius: Previous XM: Sirius Web site: XM Web site: (RNW note- both of these sites offer sample programming): 2001-08-25: Judge Debra Behnke, who was to have heard the felony animal cruelty charges against Florida host Bubba the Love Sponge and three other defendants following the February castration and slaughter of a wild boar in the car park of Clear Channel's WXTB-FM. Tampa, has removed herself from the case after Bubba's attorney filed a motion because of her liking for pigs. The slaughter led to a number of advertisers pulling spots from the station (See RNW Mar 18). According to the St Petersburg Times, the motion by attorney Norman Cannella says that the judge wears pig earrings, collects pig trinkets and has a "strong affinity" for pigs and would be biased in case. The newspaper says that Florida law says a judge must grant a defendant's first request that a judge be disqualified, whether the accusations are true or not. Behnke told the paper she found the motion "hilarious", commenting, "I have an affinity for lots of things. I love children, too, and nobody has asked me to disqualify myself from abuse and neglect cases." Previous Bubba: 2001-08-25: US host Art Bell's "Coast to Coast AM" is to get a test run in the UK on Sunday. His show wiill air from 0100 to 0500 local (midnight to 0400 GMT) on LBC in London. It is not getting much of a mention on the station's web site, which just carries a note about the show on its bulletin board compared to a note on Bell's own site asking for people to spread the word. Previous Art Bell: Art Bell web site: LBC web site: 2001-08-24: Responding to the US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) petition against terrestrial repeaters for Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services (RNW Aug 23), both Sirius and XM Satellite Radio have dismissed NAB's main objections. Sirius said it had no plans to originate local programming from the repeaters and had been consistent about this since receiving its satellite radio licence in 1997. XM's response was less direct as it emphasised that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had always understood that the terrestrial system was an "integral and fundamental" component of their service. It said it was confident its repeaters would be approved but not that this would come in time for its|September 12 commercial launch. On the programming side, Sirius has announced that it is to broadcast comedy programming from National Lampoon. This will include new material and shows from National Lampoon's archive. Previous FCC: Previous NAB: Previous Sirius: Previous XM: Sirius Web site: XM Web site: (RNW note- both of these sites offer sample programming): 2001-08-24: Former UK breakfast host Chris Evans' agent has signed a deal with Scottish Media Group (SMG), the company that bought his Ginger Media Group including Virgin Radio for £225 million last year (see RNW Jan 13, 2000) and fired him from the Virgin Breakfast show at the end of June this year (See RNW June 29). The deal, reported by the UK Guardian, is a non-exclusive two-year agreement with SMG TV Productions to develop drama and entertainment shows but, SMG told the paper, there are no plants at the moment for any project involving Evans. Previous Evans: Previous SMG: UK Guardian report: 2001-08-24: If all current deals go through, US radio giant Clear Channel will top the 1200 station mark with its latest deal, the $2 million purchase of WAAM-AM, Ann Arbor, Michigan, from Whitehall Enterprises. The deal would give Clear Channel five stations in the area. Clear Channel is also buying in New York State with the $4.3 million acquisition of WHUC-AM and FM, Hudson, and WCKL-FM and WCTW-FM, Catskill, from Concord Media. Some of its deals, however, have attracted Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attention. The Commission has red-flagged two Texas deals, the purchase of KLFX-FM in Killeen-Temple and KTFA-FM in Beaumont-Port Arthur, as well as the acquisition of WBRJ-AM in Marietta, Ohio. The FCC has also red-flagged a Cumulus deal to another Beaumont-Port Arthur deal; Cumulus's purchase of KLOI-FM from Hilco Communications on the basis of concentration of ownership and revenue-share issues. In other US deals, Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation has announced a $16 million cash deal to buy KPXC-FM licensed to Indian Springs, Nevada. The station is currently a 100 watt Class A but it has a construction permit to upgrade to Class c and 100 KW. Hispanic says that expects the deal to close in the first quarter of next year after which it will convert the station to a Hispanic-targeted format. It also says that it anticipates operating losses in its first year of operating the station. Hispanic already owns an FM and an AM in Las Vegas, some 40 miles away. Previous Clear Channel: Previous Concord: Previus Cumulus: Previous FCC: Previous Hispanic Broadcasting: 2001-08-23: Requests by Sirius and XM Satellite radio for terrestrial repeater stations for their Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service ("SDARS") have come under attack from the US National Association of Broadcasters in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It asks for their numbers to be capped, their use to be subject to mandatory restrictions, and the requests " denied because deployment of a terrestrial-based, satellite-supplemented radio service is contrary to the Commission's goal of creating a new satellite radio service and thus, would not serve the public interest." In the filing, NAB says that terrestrial repeaters should be used only to reach areas where a satellite signal cannot reach: it continues, "One of the main arguments that NAB has made against the use of terrestrial repeaters is that repeaters are simply a crutch for a technology that is not up to the task of providing the seamless, mobile coverage promised by its proponents and desired by the Commission, especially in cities where numerous "urban canyons" exist." "And as evidenced by the Requests, XM and Sirius' repeaters networks, by their sheer numbers and power levels, appear to be designed to blanket metropolitan areas, not fill-in isolated gaps in coverage……In the absence of service rules for use of terrestrial repeaters, it appears that XM and Sirius are relying on the FCC's granting them temporary authorization in order to commence commercial operation of a largely terrestrial radio service." NAB then says the Commission should require the satellite companies to show their "need" for such a large number of repeaters. Later, getting to what RNW sees as the nub of the filing says," the extensive repeater networks proposed by the SDARS license holders represent a disturbing and serious potential threat to radio broadcasters service." "Simply stated, the extensive terrestrial digital radio networks have the potential to operate totally divorced of the satellite transmission systems that they supposedly complement…the SDARS licensees have proposed service rules, which would allow local origination or insertion of locally-targeted programming." The FCC, NAB says, should ensure that the repeaters "are used only to retransmit the complete signal from the primary station, intended for the consumer satellite receivers, at the time it is transmitted……NAB has always maintained that SDARS terrestrial repeaters must be explicitly prohibited from transmitting any locally originated programming, lest SDARS become, to any extent, a terrestrial-fed network." Having also demonstrated ways by which under current rules the satellite broadcasters could store local adverts for transmission by their terrestrial repeaters, NAB then attaches to its submission a recent study by the media research firm, Eastlan Resources that says that 80% of Americans have no interest in subscribing to commercial-free satellite radio services and estimates a maximum take-up of around 5%. NAB President and CEO Eddie Fritts commented." "If XM and Sirius want to provide traditional over-the-air radio service, they should apply for over-the-air licenses like everyone else." "Otherwise, they are making a mockery of FCC rules and regulations." "The time for subterfuge by XM Radio and Sirius Radio is over. These companies must come clean with regulators and the American people on their true intentions for making satellite radio a viable business." In their applications so far, XM, which is to deploy two satellites, and Sirius, which is to deploy three satellites, respectively request authority to deploy 778 and 151 terrestrial repeaters each operating above 2 kW effective radiated power. RNW comment: As with its opposition to Low Power FM, the NAB seems to us to be in the grip of fears about any development that could in any way take away audience or income from current broadcasters. In this case, Fritts and the NAB make some valid points but, as seems to be their wont, then go over the top. Our problem is that without full facts, a sensible judgement is not possible and we don't have that much faith that either NAB or the satellite companies will try to be unbiased in terms of the engineering, never mind the economics, of satellite radio plans. The public interest would seem to require a strong FCC able to deploy sufficient technical expertise and regulatory clout to get at the facts We note here, however, that even when the FCC did seem to make a strong case in technical terms for LPFM, the NAB response was to fight it by political lobbying rather than on the technical grounds. Previous FCC: Previous Fritts: Previous NAB: Previous Sirius: Previous XM: NAB web site: NAB submission (56kb PDF): 2001-08-23: The management of US public radio network Pacifica has hired a public relations company Westhill Public Affairs to spearhead its fight against protestors who claim that changes at the company conflict with the company's aims. It is also hiring lawyers from the firm of firm of Williams & Connolly to fight actions by the protestors and former employees. Four lawsuits challenging the Pacifica Board's legitimacy are due to go to trial next year and the judge overseeing them required Pacifica to give him a month's notice before appointing new board members. He insisted on this when Pacifica tried to speed up the appointment of five new directors. Pacifica now hopes to fill the vacant slots at a board meeting in September; the activists want things put on hold until after the trial has ended. Pacifica's executive director and former general manager of WPFW, Bessie Wash, has recruited some high-profile candidates for the company's board to fill the board slots left vacant including former Washington mayor Marion Barry and activist Dick Gregory. Among the board members who resigned was Karolyn Van Putten, who says activists went to conferences she attended and interfered with meetings to hand out statements of protest and demand her resignation. Protestors' tactics include singling out board members who promote Pacifica's mission and blitzing them with thousands of faxes, phone calls and e-mails. The activists originally focused their protests on Pacifica's board meetings and stations but now they follow board members to their homes and workplaces, even pressuring their bosses and co-workers. The developments have been reported in the Washington Post and Current magazine from different angles. The former looks primarily at he story from a DC angle, noting that Pacifica's Washington station WPFW-FM is the lowest rated of the three big Washington public radio stations, behind WAMA and WETA; it also notes that a major WPFW donation is $500 compared to $25000 at WEMA. Wash told the paper that the managements gaol of the five-station network was to increase its listenership, adding, "We cannot be viable and survive if we don't increase listenership." In Current magazine, more space is given to the protestors of Pacifica Campaign, a New York based group coordinating protests around the country, to dismantle Pacifica's board and discourage listener contributions. It is led by Juan Gonzalez, who quit his job as co-host of Pacifica's Democracy Now! following the Pacifica dispute at WBAI-FM, New York. The protestors object to management decisions including centralization of control and moves to increase audience which the protesters fear will lead to a dilution of its left-wing political stance. The magazine quotes Pacifica historian Matthew Lasar, who has often criticized management, as saying, "It's clear that attempting to reform this organization using traditional command and control, top-down methods has utterly failed." "We have to step back and question whether making the board self-appointing did anything but de-legitimise it. I think that's all it did." Previous Gonzalez: Previous Pacifica: Previous Wash: Current Magazine report; Washington Post report: 2001-08-22: Quite a few radio deals in the US for a mid-week roundup: and yet again giant Clear Channel is in the action. In Texas it has paid $4.5 million to add Beaumont Contemporary Christian outlet KTFA-FM to the AM and three FM's it already has in the market In New York state, Telemedia is getting $7 million for four stations in the Albany area: WCPT-FM, Albany and WKBE-FM, Warrensburg, are being bought by Pamal Broadcasting, which already has two AMs and four FMs in the area. The other stations, WABY-AM, Albany and WKLI-FM, Ravena, will go to Galaxy Communications, which has New York state clusters in Syracuse and Utica. In the public radio field, the Baltimore Sun reports that John Hopkins University has granted Maryland Public Radio Corp. a month to organise financing and fine-tune its deal to take over WJHU-FM. The group, led by WJHU host Marc Steiner, had already been given a week's extension on August 13. The university will consider no other bids during the period. Steiner said that Maryland Public Radio has been working to secure bank loans that would be guaranteed by prominent individuals. Speculation is that the sale price will be around $5million and the Steiner group then hope to raise a further $1.5 million for improvements to the station. Among details to be finalised are issues such as station personnel, facilities and the organisation of the ownership transition. A university spokesman told the Sun "There are some important details to be worked out, but they are only details. They are not the basics of the deal by any means." And still in the area of public radio and money, a note, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle, concerning the plight of KUSF-FM, the free- form college station, which has broadcast from the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco since 1977. The station also broadcasts community services in 11 languages but has been down to a 50-watt signal instead of its normal 3000 watts since July 21. The problem was its aging transmitter, which suffered a meltdown during a rolling blackout in May; it was repaired but gave up the ghost on July 21. A new transmitter will cost $50,000 and this is leading the station, for the first time in its history, to organise a pledge drive. "We've always deplored begging on the air," KUSF program director Lisa Yimm, one of the volunteer-run station's few salaried staff members, told the paper. "But if ever a station had a reason to beg, we do. The dream is to buy a new transmitter. But we'd be happy to just raise enough funds to order parts, rebuild the power supply and get this one working again." Previous Clear Channel: Previous WJHU: Baltimore Sun report: San Francisco Chronicle on KUSF: 2001-08-22: A week of returns to the airwaves in the US with Paul Harvey back with his morning programme "Paul Harvey News and Comment"; Christopher Lydon, former host of the WBUR-FM public broadcasting show, "The Connection" making a commercial radio debut on WTKK-FM; and Gordon Liddy back on the Washington airwaves at Clear Channel's WTNT-AM following a two-week hiatus after he was ousted from Infinity's WJFK-FM as part of a reorganisation (See RNW July 22). 82-year old Harvey, who went off the air in mid-May as a result of a virus infection which he thought at first was laryngitis (See RNW May 12) has only made one broadcast since then (See RNW Aug 10.). He sounded a little hoarse as he began his Monday broadcast with his trademark ``Good Morning, Americans''; later he perked up and near the end broke into song with the words "It's been a long winter without you. It's been a long winter without you" to the tune of Blue Christmas. Harvey is only taking to the air with his morning show and daily "Rest of the Story'' for a few weeks as he continues to recover; guest hosts are presenting his 15-minute midday show. In Boston, Lydon, who is substituting for Jay Severin for two weeks for two weeks, talked about radio on his first show but kept the button-pushers busy beeping out his mentions of well known broadcasters on other channels. And in DC, Liddy returned to the airwaves at WTNT-AM with no word still out about any deal to continue with Infinity-controlled Westwood One which syndicates his show. His current contract has six months left to run. Also back on air were Atlanta WKLS-FM morning duo Larry Wachs and Eric Von Haessler, whose "Regular Guys" morning show was cut off early last Friday during a remote in a bar whose owner reacted strongly after a listener's complaint led to police turning up at the venue. The item complained about involved the duo giving Madonna tickets to a gay man who would have to have sex with a woman and also prove that he was gay. An investigation by station owners Clear Channel, who took the show off air on Monday, came to the conclusion that the pair had gone "to the line " but not crossed it. Previous Harvey: Previous Liddy: Previous Lydon: Previous Westwood One: 2001-08-22: Another jump in Internet listening has taken MeasureCast's Internet Radio Index, which was set at 100 at the start of this year, to 215 in the week to August 19. MeasureCast says that the top five Internet radio networks it measures streamed 62,551 more hours than in the week to August 12. The top five networks, ranked by total time spent listening (TTSL) for the week were 1: WarpRadio.com TTSL 412,325. 2: SurferNETWORK.com, TTSL 304,863. 3:CableMusic.com TTSL 225,856 4:MEDIAmazing.com TTSL 128,194. 5:Virgin Radio TTSL of 127,735. Of these MediaAmazing and Virgin numbers are for individual stations, keeping them both up at the top in the individual station's rankings. The top 5 individual stations ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were the same as last week. They are (with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets): 1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 128194 (141,695); CP 35565 (41,581) - Position unchanged, listening down again. 2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 107372 (109,799); CP 16346 (13,625) - Position unchanged, listening down. 3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 106959 (84,965); CP 16150 (13,240) - Position unchanged, listening up. 4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 61,332 (72,356); CP 10,168 (10,463) - Position unchanged, listening down. 5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM TTSL 53618 (49,752) CP 6841 (7,108) - Position unchanged, listening up. Previous MeasureCast ratings: MeasureCast web site: |
![]() 2001-08-21: As the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) starts to assess spectrum bands for third-generation mobile communications, the Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune have both carried items on the problems and opportunities associated with the search. The FCC says that, even with the downturn in the US economy, these services are expanding at 20% a year and it is looking at five slices of spectrum, try to determine whether they are suited for 3G services. It is also to consider the impact of relocating those bands' existing users, which include amateur radio operators and mobile satellite services. The UK is also examining the future of the country's spectrum (See RNW June 20). FCC officials acknowledge they are still trying to figure out who exactly uses the spectrum, but the agency's five commissioners have all endorsed moving ahead quickly with the plan. Commission Chairman Michael Powell was forced earlier this year to admit that the Commission could not meet a July deadline set by former President Clinton to identify such spectrum in preparation for a subsequent 2002 auction (See RNW July 1). The Boston Globe says the "occupants of those airwaves initially targeted for 3G - the Defense Department and education groups, including the Boston Catholic Television network, and the University of California system - have objected to the costs they would incur by having to relocate. Even if the funds were available, the Defense Department says it would need at least a year to move from the spectrum it uses to communicate with military satellites and for radio networks." Itadds that telecommunications companies have called for speedy action, citing amongst others, Denny Strigl, the Verizon Wireless chief executive, who warned a congressional hearing last month that ''time is running out'' and compared the industry's need for more bandwidth to an energy crisis - too little fuel for too much demand. Some others say the industry is getting ahead of itself in its calls for more spectrum, particularly in view of delays in Japan and Europe in rolling out third-generations services. ''Companies know that they are going to need spectrum. You can always come up with a new use for spectrum, and it's never a wrong policy to acquire more spectrum for your company,'' said Cheryl Leanza, deputy director of the Media Access Project, a non-profit public interest telecommunications law firm based in Washington. The Chicago Tribune report by Frank James of its Washington Bureau, looks further in terms of some of the potential uses of spectrum, citing examples such as making it easier to find earthquake victims under rubble and possible to power a filament-free, energy-efficient light bulb. "The problem, some say," it continues, " is that these technologies are targeted to places on the crowded radio spectrum that regulators already have distributed." "Those who got the spots first are loath to have the upstarts in their neighbourhood. Established users claim the newcomers will cause harmful transmission interference because they will be operating in the same frequency ranges, ultimately hurting consumers." Later the report adds, "It won't be easy. Policymakers must sort through thick, competing engineering studies and lobbyists' spin." The Tribune then quotes Julius Kaplan, deputy chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, as saying, "The fundamental issue here is, as we try to put more services together on the spectrum, it becomes an increasing technical challenge to ensure that these different services don't interfere with each other." After detailing some of the increases in demand - a rise from around 85 million mobile phone subscribers at the start of last year to 110 million at the end, for example - James looks at some of the other developments that could affect spectrum use. They include UWB, ultra wideband, which transmits extremely short pulses of radio energy across the entire radio spectrum compared with the much longer waves of traditional wireless transmissions. Its unique characteristics allow it to carry large amounts of data, including video, and to "see" through solid objects such as walls by using a portable device that transmits and receives a signal it can show as an image. Owners of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) systems say that UWB could interfere with their systems and potentially affect aviation safety; they have called for the licensing of UWB devices and also for them to be forced to use a different section of spectrum. UWB advocates point out that UWB can also be used for precise location of the wearers of transmitting devices, and Jeff Ross, vice president, corporate development of Time Domain Corp., an Alabama-based UWB technology company, says this means that GPS companies see the technology as a threat to them. "The problem is, GPS wants to go indoors. When GPS sees that we're getting accurate positioning indoors within an inch, it's viewed as a competitive threat," he said. Similar concerns about interference have been expressed about a filament-free light bulb made by Fusion Lighting Inc. of Rockville, Maryland. The bulb is powered by an accompanying microwave transmitter that, according to Sirius and XM Satellite Radio will interfere with their digital radio transmissions. The radio companies want drop of emissions by Fusion of 99.9% below current rules, something that Fusion says would put it out of business. Fusion's bulbs use magnetrons and operate in the International ISM Band (Industrial-Scientific-Medical) at 2.45 gHz, as do microwaves, and the company says that microwave ovens will also interfere with the satellite radio signal. There has also been conflict within different sections of broadcasting about use of spectrum in the same range. An example of this is the fight between the digital broadcast satellite industry and Northpoint Technology Ltd, which wants to use the same spectrum band allocated to the satellite companies to transmit TV signals by land antennas to DBS customers A congressionally mandated study indicated that Northpoint would create a "significant interference threat" but that this could be reduced through methods such as shielding; here again the current users of the spectrum say their concern is "interference", the potential new users that they are afraid of competition. As noted in our weekly "Columnists" report (RNW Aug 20), this is "one to watch! There's a lot of money out there and the effects on the current spectrum map could fulfil many laws of unintended consequences." Previous FCC: Previous Powell: Previous Sirius Satellite Radio: Previous XM: Boston Globe report: Chicago Tribune report: Fusion Lighting site: Media Access Project site: 2001-08-21: XM Satellite Radio, which launches its commercial service in San Diego and Dallas/Fort Worth on Sept. 12, is to buy the building in Washington, DC, where it is currently housed according to the Washington Post. The paper says XM has contracted to pay $34 million for the three-storey building; it was the second tenant after Qwest Communications International Inc., which leased 101,000 square feet for a telecommunications switching station on the bottom floor. XM occupies 120,000 square feet in the rest of the building as its headquarters. The building has been up for sale since January and XM says owning the building would give it extra flexibility in terms of doing things without having to get advance permission. XM has also announced that it is to sponsor XM Radio Electronica, the electronic dance music stage, at California's largest music festival, San Diego's Street Scene from September 7-9 "XM is thrilled to sponsor the electronic dance music stage at Street Scene," said Lee Abrams, XM's Chief Programming Officer. "The festival will allow us to showcase one of XM's most original channels and build awareness and momentum for our service launch." Previous XM: Washington Post report: XM Web site 2001-08-20: A report in the Irish Times this week brought to mind a comment by a British miners' leader around 1926: "It's not the figures lying but the liars' figuring…." - or maybe in the more modern context the marketing department's manipulating. In the Irish Times' case, the comment was by Harry Browne on latest Irish radio audience figures (See RNW Aug. 15). It starts, "How can so many rival radio stations claim to be winning listeners? It all depends how you look at the figures…" Later Browne continues, "….Alert listeners would also have picked up a vainglorious chorus of self-congratulation as station bosses and their PR scriptwriters picked through the JNLR/MRBI numbers." "And all somehow managed to find reasons to be cheerful. Typically, these boasts are based on a combination of selective reading, wishful thinking and the tyranny of petty differences." RNW note: The same is true of almost any kind of "spin"; the problem is when the audience doesn't have enough factual information to distinguish between slight exaggeration an total hype to the point of distortion. This could have led us on to comments about some radio talk hosts but in this case prompted us to look at issues concerning radio where "spin" is in the news or likely to be. One of the potentially most important of these for radio is the question of spectrum for mobile communications. Even in these times when the early hype of third-generation communications has been dampened down,this is likely to lead to some hard fought battles. One has already started, that concerning freeing up of US spectrum currently allocated to the military. On the one hand an Associated Press report that appeared in various US newspapers gives the feeling that the Pentagon is already gearing up to hold on to what it has. On the other hand ar the lobbies for various industries that would benefit if they were to be allocated the spectrum. Cue the AP article which starts off by saying," The Pentagon is facing home-grown adversaries: gadget-happy Americans and the communications industry that lures them on with products that require new slices of the airwaves." It then says the military need for spectrum is growing, quoting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's testimony to a House Committee that, "In Kosovo, we had one-tenth the number of people that we did in the Gulf War, and we used 100 times the bandwidth.'' It also quotes Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, chairman of the Government Reform Committee, as saying, "The explosion of wireless technologies threatens to push military equipment off prime radio frequencies just as we're spending billions to link our forces on the digital battlefield." One of the most important bands for wireless communications is that in the 1755-1850 MHz range, currently held primarily by the Pentagon in the US. Cue another view, this time in a Washington Post article by Michael Calabrese, who directs the Public Assets Program at the New America Foundation. He argues that the US suffers from a "a policy-induced spectrum shortage ", saying that this is because "The prime frequencies that allow signals to penetrate buildings and bad weather have all been allocated to politically powerful clients." His solutions however go wider than many industry lobbyists are likely to approve. He notes the idea that the military should be paid to move from the 1755-1850 MHz band, internationally designated for third generation telecommunications uses, to "a less valuable set of frequencies." Under legislation proposed by two Republican representatives, Charles Pickering of Mississippi and Fred Upton of Michigan, the from the auction of the frequencies "…would be earmarked for a trust fund designated strictly for military modernization." Calabrese however argues that, even if the military agreed to this idea, which could give it some $70 billion, or so, the US Congress should "grab this opportunity to lay the foundation for a better long-term solution that would involve a very different kind of deal in at least two respects." "First, Congress should replace its policy of rigidly 'zoning' the spectrum with a more flexible, market-based approach." "Broadcasters and other incumbents profit from an outdated 'industrial policy' that doled out free spectrum but also rigidly defined exactly how much spectrum is allocated to each industry and for precisely what services." "As technologies evolved, incumbent industries found themselves squatting on far more spectrum than they needed -- and far more than they would ever pay to use." "Instead, all users should pay a market rate to rent space on the public airwaves, and receive in return flexibility to sublease their spectrum or offer whatever services yield the most profit." "Second, a substantial share of any revenue from licensing the airwaves should be earmarked to fulfil the "public interest obligations" that justified giving broadcasters free monopoly access to the airwaves in the first place." The Pickering-Upton proposal, Calabrese says, "rests on the false premise that incumbent licensees 'own' the airwaves and are therefore entitled to any revenue gained by 'selling; them." "Independent broadcasters assert a similar claim and are proposing private 'band-clearing' auctions aimed at cashing in on spectrum they received for free." "In fact, since shortly after radio began in the early 1920s, Congress and the courts have repeatedly affirmed that there is no ownership interest in the airwaves, only temporary rentals." "The airwaves are a common asset owned equally by all Americans. Because spectrum incumbents are so politically potent, Congress will likely limit reform to the urgent task of opening new frequencies for wireless Internet services." "But because each American owns an equal share of the airwaves, it's not enough to say that the economy overall will benefit from third-generation services." "The nation also should take this opportunity to reinvest a portion of any auction windfall to update the non-commercial portion of our educational and civic infrastructure for the digital era." RNW comment: One to watch! There's a lot of money out there and the effects on the current spectrum map could fulfil many laws of unintended consequences. Previous Columnists: Previous Harry Browne: Irish Times - Browne: New York Times/AP report: Washington Post - Calabrese: 2001-08-20: A BBC Radio 4 documentary is drawing attention to homophobic lyrics in a Jamaican reggae hit which BBC Radio 1 is airing on the basis of its popularity according to a report in the UK Independent from David Usborne in New York. The hit, Chi Chi Man, by the island's top selling band, TOK, was recently named the number one reggae dancehall song in Britain by Radio 1's specialist reggae DJ. It appears to advocate chasing homosexuals and burning them alive and is under attack from the gay and lesbian movement. The BBC Radio 4, documentary, The Roots of Homophobia, is presented by Rikki Beadle-Blair, whose mother came from Jamaica. It looks at how homophobia is an accepted tenet of the island's culture; in Jamaica, homosexual acts are punishable by 10 years' hard labour, and in the last decade at least 38 homosexuals have been killed because of their sexuality. Members of TOK in an interview for the programme say that "chi chi, which originally meant vermin in Jamaica, refers to all corrupt people in their songs but they go on to admit that homosexuality is seen as corruption and the term is widely used as slang for a homosexual. The chorus of their song runs, "From dem a par inna chi chi man car/ Blaze de fire mek we bun them!! (Bun dem!!)/ From de a drink inna chi chi man bar/ Blaze de fire mek we dun dem!! (Dun dem!!)" Ian Parkinson, head of specialist music for Radio 1, told the programme: "It has almost become an unofficial national anthem for some people in Jamaica, and for a specialist reggae show not to play it I think would be a distortion." Previous BBC: UK Independent report: 2001-08-20: Scottish Media Group (SMG) , whose holdings include Virgin Radio, has changed its auditors, appointing Andersen in place of Price Waterhouse Coopers. The company says the move is unconnected with the value of the group's radio assets, which include a 29.45% stake in Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) whose value has fallen dramatically from £148 million to around £80 million. SMG is due to issue its interim results on September11th and there has been speculation that, if the SRH shares remain down, it may have to write down the SRH holding on its end of year balance sheet, more or less wiping out pre-tax profits. Andersen was involved in the group's £225 million acquisition of Chris Evans' Ginger Media and has been carrying out corporate finance work for SMG. Previous SMG: Previous SRH: 2001-08-19: In licence news this week, more Low Power FM action in the US and an update of the radio plan for Perth in Australia, Elsewhere it was quiet with routine approvals in Canada but nothing of note in the UK or Ireland. In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority's plans for radio in Perth now comprise six national radio broadcasting services, six commercial radio broadcasting services, seven community and four open narrowcasting radio services. These will include five new community radio services, one Perth-wide plus local services at Armadale, Kalamunda, Wanneroo and Fremantle. In addition the ABA proposes to improve the coverage of Perth commercial AM radio services 6IX and 6PR. To do this, it plans to make one FM frequency available to each licensee for additional transmitters to serve the northern and southern parts of the Perth licence area. The ABA proposes that 6IX and 6PR operate translators at Wanneroo in the north and at Rockingham in the south, both on 105.7 MHz. and 106.5 MHz respectively. In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has also been in the updating business, in its case the definition of what constitutes a "hit" record for English-language stations in terms of a radio station's promise of performance. The change was needed because two Canadian publications, The Record and RPM, have ceased publication. As a consequence, The Record's Country chart, and RPM's Country Tracks chart are no longer available. The CRTC has added a new publication, Canadian Music Network, to its approved list and its National Airplay chart and Country Top 50 Audience chart to the list of those charts it uses in determining what constitutes a hit. The other approved charts are Billboard's Hot 100 Singles and Hot Country. In licence activity, the CRTC has approved the transfer of effective control of CHRD-FM Drummondville, and CFEI-FM Saint-Hyacinthe, both in Quebec, to Astral Radio Group Inc., and the sale of the assets of CKLM-FM, Lloydminster, Alberta, by Peace River Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. It has also renewed the licence of CFCR-FM Saskatoon, from 1 September 2001 to 30 November 2001 and allowed additional transmitters at Wilno for CHCR-FM, Killaloe Ontario; and at Mulgrave for CBH-FM Halifax, Nova Scotia. It has approved several power changes which include that an increase in the power of CIWV-FM Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario, from 1,880 watts to 3,600 watts; of CHSK-FM Swift Current, Saskatchewan, from 440 watts to 4,719 watts and a decrease in the power of CFIY-FM, Campbell River, British Columbia from 50 watts to 27 watts. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has accepted 232 more Low Power FM applications for filing (See RNW Aug 18). It has also confirmed fines on Radio One Inc and Infinity Broadcasting (See RNW Aug 16). Previous ABA: Previous CRTC: Previous FCC: Previous Licence News: ABA web site CRTC web site: FCC web site: 2001-08-19: Janet Dahl, wife of Chicago radio host Steve Dahl, has settled her lawsuit against another Chicago host, Erich "Mancow" Muller. The suit was lodged in 1999 after Muller had made what Janet Dahl termed disparaging sexual comments about her. No terms of the settlement were disclosed but the suit was claiming in excess of $5 million dollars each from Muller, Chicago WKQX-FM, its owner Emmis Communications. It also claimed damages from other stations that carried Muller's show and Weigel Broadcasting the owner of WCIU-Ch 26, which carried a TV show based on Muller's radio programme. Muller had contended that because Janet Dahl frequently called in to her husbands show this made her a public figure. Cook County Judge Joseph N. Casciato rejected this defence. Previous Dahl: Previous Muller: 2001-08-18: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has posted a list of 232 more Low Power FM applications "accepted for filing" from the January 16-22 filing window. The term means that the applications do not conflict with other applications and comply with LPFM rules. Most are from churches and religious groups with the largest numbers coming from New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, South Carolina, Colorado and Missouri. Of the New York applications more than 25 were from the New York State Department of Transportation. Objections have to be filed to the FCC by September 17. Previous FCC: FCC notice: 2001-08-18: It's been a quiet week for radio deals in the US but, of those that have happened, giant Clear Channel has taken a lion's share. It's now completed a $2.8 million purchase of WXAJ-FM in Hillsborough, Illinois, from Union Broadcasting. It's also spending $2.6M for KLFX-FM Nolanville, Texas; $800000 on WISL-AM & FM, Shamokin, Pennsylvania; and $700000 for WBIP-FM, Booneville, Mississippi (in the Tupelo market where seller Community Broadcasting Services retains WBIP-AM). In other deals, in Montana Jim Carroll is spending $250000 on KDRG-AM Deer Lodge, and KANA-AM & KGLM-FM, Anaconda. In Florida the Tama Group is paying $4 million for WMCG-FM, Tampa. Also in Florida, Beasley Broadcasting has upgraded the signal strength of its Fort Myers adult standards format WJPT-FM, "Silver 106," from 6000 to 50,000 watts. Beasley says the change extends the reach of the station from Naples to the south up to Port Charlotte to the north. On the digital front, iBiquity has announced a joint technology and marketing development agreement with Hyundai AutoNet, the Korean OEM electronics supplier for Hyundai and KIA, to develop and market IBOC DAB AM/FM receivers using iBiquity's technology. Finally on the downside, Internet radio service Disc.Jockey.com appears to be out of business for good. The company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protections a while ago and now its web site re-directs to www.tech-bankruptcy.com," the "Special Projects" page of Swiggart & Agin, LLC, the law firm handling the bankruptcy proceedings. Also on the ropes following the dot.com bust is the Industry Standard magazine. Barring a last-minute white knight it has already printed its last edition although it is continuing on the Internet for now. A report on the Internet site says," The company will continue to publish its Web site, TheStandard.com, and will retain a small editorial team while it seeks a buyer. The company likely will file for bankruptcy protection, and most of its 180 employees will lose their jobs. Previous Beasley: Previous Clear Channel: Previous iBiquity: The Standard web site: 2001-08-17: Christopher Lydon, former host of the WBUR-FM public radio show "The Connection" is to fill in for Jay Severin for two-weeks beginning Monday at Boston commercial station WTTK-FM. Lydon told the Boston Globe that the hard news for him was the 18-20 minutes per hour of "commercial interruption." This he said "can put a lot of pressure on our kind of conversation." "There are people like David Brudnoy who rise above it. This is an extremely generous offer, and we'll see what happens.'' There is still no news yet regarding a new show for US National Public Radio (NPR) and the paper reports that recently Lydon and his producer were coming out of a meeting at WBZ-AM; it adds that Lydon won't say if he's actively pursuing a commercial radio opportunity. Previous Lydon: Previous NPR: Boston Globe report: 2001-08-17: The latest annual "rich list" from UK Broadcast Magazine shows a significant number of British radio's big names slipping down the rankings or out of them entirely. Most prominently, former Virgin breakfast host Chris Evans is reported to have lost £28 million of his fortune over the past year; last year he was ranked 8th richest with £80 million in assets but now he's down to 12th place with £52 million. The fall is largely because of the drop in value of the shares of Scottish Media Group (SMG), which bought his Ginger Media Group (See RNW Jan 13, 2000). Down even more in percentage terms is Kelvin MacKenzie, head of the Wireless Group. His fortune is said to have dropped to £6 million from £13 million. Out of the list entirely are GWR chief executive Ralph Bernard; Capital Radio chief executive, David Mansfield; and Storm Radio founder, Bruno Brookes. Still up at the top is Classic FM chairman Sir Peter Michael,who is listed as worth £185m, up £10 million from last year. Other radio connected names in the top ten are Chris Wright of Chrysalis, who in sixth place is listed as worth £105m, £15 million down on last year, and Dr Avtar Lit of Sunrise Radio, who is 9th equal and is estimated to be worth £60m, £10 million down on last year. Previous Bernard: Previous Brookes: Previous Capital Radio: Previous Chrysalis: Previous Evans: Previous GWR: Previous Lit: Previous MacKenzie: Previous Mansfield: Previous SMG: Previous Sunrise Radio: Previous Wireless Group: Previous Wright: 2001-08-16: Listeners to 18 Milwaukee-area radio stations had to listen to the sounds of a baby crying for 50 seconds earlier this week as part of a campaign against "shaken baby syndrome." The advertising agency involved had the idea for a long while but thought nobody would air such a spot, aired at conveying the frustration of dealing with persistent crying by an infant, because listeners would change channels. Then it was suggested by a writer that this objection could be overcome if all the stations in the area aired the spot simultaneously -as they did at 7:20 AM on Tuesday. New York Times/AP report: 2001-08-16: US newspapers have been carrying Associated Press reports about the exploitation of US regulations concerning non-commercial radio that have allowed Christian network American Family Radio (AFR) to knock two public radio stations off the air within six months. The Rev. Don Wildmon, who is behind American Family Radio, has used a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation that allows a newly-build full-power station to take over the frequencies used by "repeater" or "translator" stations. In its latest exploitation of the rule, AFR built two full power stations in Lafayette, Louisiana, and took off the air the local National Public Radio (NPR) station serving Lake Charles, Louisiana. AP reports that as well as taking over the frequencies of such stations, by taking shrewd advantage of regulations involving them Wildmon has built up to 181 stations in 31 states. He found out that the regulations allowed the delivery of signals to translator stations by satellite not just terrestrial transmissions and thus that with one station he could speedily develop a network. Hs managed to get a licence for a station in Tupelo and after it opened in 1991 applied for numerous translator-station licences, primarily in smaller communities where there was unallocated FM spectrum which had been reserved for non-commercial stations. His main competition, AP reports, has been from copycat Christian broadcasters. To blunt the threat of them searching for AFR licence applications, Wildmon began filing such applications under different names. He then noted the regulation concerning full-power stations, the rationale behind which was that full-power stations could serve a community better than unmanned translators. His first action in the field was in Oregon where, working with a church in Grants Pass, he built a full-power station that took over the frequency used to re-broadcast NPR's signal. The tactic led stations operating translators to apply for full-power licences to protect their frequencies and y Widmon had to do the same; now nearly half AFR stations are full power. The Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority says, "American Family Radio's growth strategy has overturned the status quo in the religious broadcasting world." With its "very aggressive moral and social agenda," he adds, American Family has become "a primary media outlet for American religious conservatives today." AFR, which was involved in the successful fight for withdrawal of Federal Communications Commission rules which said that religious-exhortation TV programming didn't qualify as "educational", is now involved in another fight with the FCC. This time it is challenging new FCC rules regarding non-commercial licences that it says would always give them to National Public Radio (NPR) in preference to AFR. It contends that the new rules are a form of retaliation following the pressures that led to withdrawal of the rules on religious-exhortation programming. Previous FCC: Previous NPR: SF Gate/AP report: 2001-08-16: DMG, whose Australian holdings include the new Sydney Nova FM station, has settled a court case in connection with a bogus letter writing campaign designed to undermine DMG's credibility (see RNW Dec 13, 2000). DMG has received costs and "substantial" damages in the settlement, which was made before the case was due to go to trial next month (see RNW May 22 ). DMG's lawsuit was against public relations consultant Ken Davis, his former employer Turnbull Porter Novelli, Austereo and Austereo chairman Peter Harvie, but the latter two did not contribute to the payment according to the Sydney Morning Herald. As part of the settlement, it reports, Davis has admitted he wrote and sent out more than 50 bogus letters. Harvie has denied knowledge of the bogus letters but admitted he commissioned Davis to run a campaign to encourage community radio stations to lobby for more licences so there would be fewer frequencies to be allocated for commercial ones . The paper says that Austereo and Harvie admitted that Davis orchestrated the campaign in the belief that it fell within his brief to "advance the interests of Austereo" and both parties expressed regret over the damage and inconvenience suffered. Previous Austereo: Previous DMG: Previous Harvie: Sydney Morning Herald report: 2001-08-16: The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC)has fined Radio One Inc $21500 over a number of technical violations at WBOT-FM, Boston, Massachusetts, and rejected Infinity arguments against a $4000 fine over offences at WJFK-FM Manassas in the Washington Dc market and KHTK-AM Sacramento. The fines on Radio One followed a station inspection in March of last year after information that it might be violating regulations. The inspection revealed ten different violations and in March this year the station was told that the FCC intended to fine it $22000. The total was made up of a $10,000 fine for failing to have a public inspection file, an $8000 fine for failure to have operating Emergency Alarm System (EAS) equipment, a $2000 fine for failure to monitor operational parameters, $1000 for failure to maintain a station log and $1000 for failing to have a local telephone number in the city of licence. Radio One had sought either an admonishment instead of a fine or a reduction of the fines for the offences, all of which were not denied. It had given explanations of delays in shipping equipment and staff changes of various of the offences. On the question of maintaining a local phone number, which applied for a four-month period, it said that it had not realised after it relocated WBOT's main studio that listeners in Brockton could only reach WBOT by making a long distance call as opposed to the local or toll-free number which is a condition of licence. It had always had a local number in Brockton. The FCC upheld all the fines but reduced the fine for the telephone offence to $500 in recognition of Radio One's voluntary disclosure of the violation. In the case of Infinity, the offences related to a broadcast from WJFK, re-transmitted by KHTK, during which hosts Don and Mike told a caller and her sister, who had knowingly been on air, that they were being put on hold when in fact their conversation continued to be broadcast. Infinity had argued that people did not have to be told on a continuing basis that they were on air and claimed they were being fined under a new interpretation of the caller notification rule. It also tried to escape the Sacramento fine on the basis that EZ Communications owned the station at the time of the offence. The FCC rejected both arguments and noted that the caller had every reason to believe she had been taken off air. Previous FCC: Previous Radio One Inc: Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity: FCC on Infinity fine: FCC on Radio One fine: 2001-08-15: Internet audio ratings organisation MeasureCast Inc., in its latest weekly report, says that listening has remained static since the previous week with its Internet audio Index remaining at 207; In a general comment it says that urban rhythm and blues stations have gained audience notably with WHUR-FM now hitting sixth rank and another BroadcastURBAN.com station, WBLS- FM moving up to 10th place. At the very top, the only change in the top five was again a was a switch in rankings between ESPN and Virgin Radio. The top 5 ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were (with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets): 1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 141,695 (174,716); CP 41,581 (45,027) - Position unchanged, listening down. 2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 109,799 (104,536); CP 13,625 (14, 361) - Previously 3rd. 3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 84,965 (109,575); CP 13,240 (15,397) -Previously 2nd. 4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville 72,356 TTSL (71,667); CP 10,463 (10,542) - - Position unchanged. 5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM TTSL 49,752 (39,970) CP 7,108 (6,201) - Position unchanged. Previous MeasureCast ratings: MeasureCast web site: 2001-08-15: Comments by BBC Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan criticising BBC Radio 1 disc jockeys have led to a public spat between him and them on air, gleefully carried in the British tabloid newspapers including the Daily Star and the Sun. Wogan had called BBC Radio 1 " too crude" in an interview, commenting that Afternoon presenter Chris Moyles and Breakfast Show presenter Sara Cox "aimed at the groin" and were "in doubtful taste". Moyles in his afternoon show said he was "crying inside" over the comments then added, "I'm not just a yob. I'm going to hold him by the hand, look him in the eye, and say, 'I love you'. "If he doesn't say it back, I'm going to tear that wig off his head and shove it up his arse." Cox also rejected the comments on air but later was fooled by a call from Manchester station Century FM when host Mike Maguire, posting as Wogan, got her to agree that Moyles was a lout. Previous BBC: Previous Cox: Previous Wogan: 2001-08-15: Latest radio numbers from Ireland show commercial radio maintaining its strong position and taking a 44% share and 55% listenership nationally. The latest JNLR/MRBI Survey, which covers the period July 2000 - June 2001, shows Today FM increasing its reach by 1% to 15% and state broadcaster RTÉ's Radio 1 losing 1% to a 30% reach while its 2FM maintained its 28% reach. As well as Today FM, Lite FM has performed well and taken its audience to a 14% reach and 10% share in its first year. There was a particularly strong performance by Highland Radio, which continues to dominate its area in Co Donegal with a reach and market share of 72% and 66% respectively. Also doing well in the commercial sector were Radio Kilkenny with a 66% listenership, up 3% and LM FM, which achieved a 6% increase in listenership to 52%; and Clare FM (63%), Mid West Radio (59%) and Shannonside/Northern Sound (53%) all of which recorded listenership increases of 5%. Also in Ireland, the Irish Times reports that its columnist and broadcaster Vincent Browne is to return to RTÉ Radio 1 with his Tonight with Vincent Browne show which resumes in October, a year after he moved to TV as a presenter on Prime Time (See RNW June 28, 2000). He left the programme in February following disagreements with management over the content and direction of the programme. Previous Vincent Browne: Previous RTÉ: Previous Irish Ratings: IRTC news release on figures: Irish Times search page (look for Byrne and Aug 14 for report on Byrne return to radio): 2001-08-15: Second quarter result from Sirius Satellite Radio, which says it expects to begin offering its service towards the end of this year, show an operating loss of $46.7 million, a net loss of $62.1 million and a net loss applicable to common of stockholders of $72.5 million, or $1.35 per share. This compares with Q2 results last year of an operating loss of $28.9 million, a net loss of $34.8 million and a net loss applicable to common stockholders of $45.0 million, or $1.11 per share. The company says it still has $400 million in cash, enough to fund operations through the third quarter of 2002. Previous Sirius: Sirius Web site: 2001-08-15: New Musical Express (NME) and Virgin Radio have launched a branded, digital and Internet radio station on the Internet and London digital multiplex, Switchdigital. The station is managed by Virgin and will provide 24 hours of music broken up into " mood" slots. The move is one of a number of initiatives by NME, which is 50 years old next year, to put its brand on various platforms. Virgin already runs a successful streaming operation on the Internet. Previous Virgin: Previous Switch Digital: Nmeradio.com web site: Virgin radio web site: 2001-08-14: Two perspectives on Latino shock-jocks in the US from New York and the Associated Press highlight the same concern; that they are getting away with programmes that, were they in English, would have attracted regulatory attention but have escaped it, possibly because they are in Spanish. The New York Times terms the genre "radiopornografia" and quotes Alex Nogales, president of the National Coalition of Hispanic Media (NHCM), which was formed in 1986 to monitor U.S. Spanish-language media, as saying," If Howard Stern spoke like some of the Spanish announcers, he would already have been suspended." Defenders of the programmes, aired mainly in Miami, New York and Los Angeles, say that their content, which includes swearing by callers and discussion of sex organs and sexual practices, reflects reality among young urban Latinos. NHCM's New York representative, Marta Garcia, says that her group is probably the only one monitoring the programs. It is gathering ammunition to challenge the federal license of (SBS) Spanish Broadcasting System's New York station La Mega, home of "El Vacilón de la Mañana" ("The Morning Goof-Off"), which runs from 6 a.m.-10 a.m. and recently took a 5.5 5 share of listeners in New York compared to Howard Stern's 6.3 percent. Garcia described an episode in which children called in to utter obscenities on the air. In another broadcast of the programme's regular feature "Your Secret," an anonymous woman explicitly described the sexual act her boyfriend was pressuring her to perform. After she hung up, the announcers traded explicit jokes for several minutes. "El Vacilón was recently the subject of a column in the New York Hispanic daily Hoy by Plinio Garrido, who wrote of shopping in a supermarket that was airing the show over its public address system, and hearing men and women discussing the male sexual organ. "One of the announcers made a comment so crude that it made me very uncomfortable because there was a lady in front of me with her daughters of about 9 and 12 years old," Garrido wrote. Joseph A. Garcia, SBS executive vice president said "El Vacilón" was controversial in the way Howard Stern is controversial, nothing more. Its popularity, he said, clinched his argument about how many people are fans and how many are offended. Another target of NHCM is the "With Alfredo" programme aired on KKHJ-AM in Los Angeles for its program "With Alfredo." In a 1999 show, host Alfredo Najera detailed a woman having sex with five men. He was later taken off the air, but that was due to personal problems with management, not because of the program's content, the station said. Marta Garcia told the New York Times that her group plans to pressure stations to tone down their content by going after its advertisers. It's not only questions of decency which are arousing comment, although so far they have not led to much action compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines which Infinity Broadcasting has paid in fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in relation to the Howard Stern show. At least one of the other complaints, however, did lead to action; Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation fired Gerson Borrero, a self-described "disrespectful" talk show host on New York's WADO-AM, a self-described "disrespectful" talk show host, after complaints from Latino politicians about their work and character (See RNW June 22) Borrero terms it censorship and is considering suing the station Previous FCC: Previous Hispanic Broadcasting: Previous Spanish Broadcasting System: Previous Stern: Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity: AP report: New York Times report: 2001-08-14: US advert-insertion company StreamAudio has found a silver lining in the dispute involving extra fees for streaming advertisements originally made for radio (See RNW April 4): It says it now has 109 stations using its software to replace over-the-air AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) adverts with Internet-only ones. StreamAudio's radio clients include Entercom and Cox and advert-replacement advertisers include Anheiser-Busch, Proctor and Gamble, and Pfizer consumer products. StreamAudio says its advert-insertion feature, which is built into its encoder software, works with a number of automation systems including AudioVault, BSI WaveStation, ENCO, Maestro, and Prophet. It also supplies an "Instant Replay" encoder which automatically archives news, sports, traffic and weather report and instantly makes them available on a station web site. Previous StreamAudio: StreamAudio site: 2001-08-13: For this week's look at media items on radio, we start of with UK and US articles concerning "offensive" material and standards in general. In the UK Independent, Jade Garrett, queries the standards of daytime DJs and asked is the UK could handle US-style shock jocks. The article cites various examples and considers figures from the UK Broadcasting Standard Commission's annual report (see RNW July 10) and a study jointly concerned by the Commission and the Radio Authority which found that most offence was caused by the way callers were treated. It also quotes Jon Gaunt, the Sony-award winning presenter (see RNW May 1) who has recently joined BBC London Live and who is critical of some current on-air banter. "The problem with UK radio is that there are too many bullshitters who adopt a personality when they're on air," says the DJ who once threatened to attack a caller with his baseball bat "Sara Cox is doing nothing to push back the boundaries of UK radio; she's just being gratuitous, appealing to the lowest common denominator." Gaunt is also critical of another Radio 1 DJ, Chris Moyles, who, he says, "can be funny" but far too often reverts to the "tits-and-wanker jokes instead of the more innovative stuff" Another DJ, Steve Penk, who has taken over Chris Evans' Virgin Radio Breakfast slot and is renowned for his love of telephone wind-ups, said, "Some of the calls I do have a hard edge." "I kick people's shins until they explode. But I have been doing this for a number of years, and I have a built-in cringe-meter; I know how far I can go. I never, ever, set out to upset people. My radio show is not there to shock; it's mass-media entertainment." None of them it seems is likely, yet anyway, to go as far as some US hosts, the example cited being of Howard Stern, who, after the Columbine High School massacre, asked why the killers had not had sex with some of the girls first. "There were some really good-looking girls running out with their hands over their heads. At least if you're going to kill yourself and kill all the kids, why wouldn't you have some sex?" he said. Penk, the paper says, would welcome that brand of humour on the UK airwaves but not Gaunt. "When you've talked about having sex with a horse," he asks, "where else do you go?" In the US itself, Current Magazine recently carried an article by Dan Odenwald concerning Federal Communications Commission rulings relating to indecency, what it terms the "FCC's reinvigorated enforcement" and the stance taken by two Democratic Commissioners, Gloria Tristani and Michael Copps, the latter a Bush appointee. Tristani, who is trying to unseat New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici in the 2002 election, it says, "may be looking to connect with concerned parents disgusted with sex-obsessed media." Copps, it notes, served as chief of staff to Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (Democrat -South Carolina.), a noted critic of TV violence. It is widely believed that Hollings played an important role in naming Copps to the commission and that both are interested in curbing indecency in the media. Republican members of the FCC have not yet made their stance clear but the article says the FCC is getting tougher. The article cites as evidence $7000 fines against Oregon, community station KBOO-FM (See RNW May 22), and Citadel-owned Colorado, commercial station KKMG-FM (See RNW June 10), both for playing "rap" lyrics. Both stations have lodged appeals. KBOO argues that the Sarah Jones "Your Revolution" song they broadcast was not indecent in the context. It says it plans to go to court and argue that the First Amendment protects speech with an important political message. KKMG, which was fined for a broadcast of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady", argued that its popularity also meant that is was not offensive by contemporary standards. Whatever the arguments, the fines stand for the moment, and seem to be having an effect on stations. They did in the case of KBOO, which took the programme involved -- Deena Barnwell's show, Soundbox -off its schedule for four months and then moved it from its Wednesday night 7 p.m. timeslot to Sunday night, after midnight. KBOO is also warning volunteer deejays to take extra precaution when playing questionable material. Interestingly the article gives the statistics concerning FCC actions concerning indecency over the past five years-31 of which seven were this year. The argument of a clampdown is not so far, it seems, upheld on this basis! Another US paper also takes up an indecency issue concerning the FCC, this time the removal of the licences of radio stations belonging the convicted child molester Michael Rice (See RNW July 6). A Los Angeles Times report by Stephanie Simon, which we spotted in the Boston Globe, notes the plan to auction the licences and the rarity of such actions. It cites a similar case of a New York station whose owner was a paedophile and of a New York TV station whose owner had been laundering drugs money. "On the other hand, " it says, "the commission has not penalized license applicants who have been convicted of second-degree murder, antitrust violations, and forging prescriptions, among other crimes." (RNW comment: We are not sure from the article whether it is rare because the FCC turns a blind-eye to everyday offences by stations owners or because serious offences by them are rare!). Rice's attorney is arguing that the government should not be in the business of making moral judgements about who is fit to run a station. Rice himself served five years in prison and stands to lose millions; his psychiatrist concluded that his behaviour was not a wilful sex offence but rather an outgrowth of undiagnosed mental disorders, including multiple personalities. Previous Columnists: Boston Globe/LA Times - Simon: Current Magazine -Odenwald: UK Independent - Garrett: 2001-08-12: Licence News: and this week, Australia was involved in consideration of political broadcasting, Canada and the UK mainly in routine renewals; Ireland has had a clampdown on pirate radio stations and the US in consideration of spectrum availability for third-generation mobile communications uses. In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) ruled that a Melbourne station had broken the rules in not being clear enough that a broadcast was paid for by a political party (See RNW August 7 but took no further action. In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved a number of takeovers and licence renewals and also given notice of an October public meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, to consider various local licence matters. Licences renewed included the type B community licences of Homegrown Community Radio's for CHCR-FM Killaloe, Ontario; of Wired World Inc.'s CKWR-FM Kitchener, Ontario; of Briercrest Community Radio Inc.'s CJOS-FM, Caronport, Saskatchewan; and the type-A community licence of the Association des francophones de Nunavut's CFRT-FM Iqaluit, Nunavut. Other renewals included the licence of CJVA, Caraquet, New Brunswick; of CFPE-FM and CFPF-FM Banff, Alberta; and a short-term renewal of the licence of Rogers Broadcasting Limited's CKBY-FM Ottawa, until November; the Commission says it will not be able to rule on a full renewal before the existence of the current licence before it expires at the end of this month. Other matters dealt with by the commission included the approval of the acquisition of tourist information station CHTR-FM Drumheller, Alberta, by the Drumheller Regional Business Development Centre Corp. from The Big Country Tourist Association and of CJRW-FM Summerside, Prince Edward Island, by Maritime Broadcasting System Limited from The Gulf Broadcasting Company Limited. This last will mean that Maritime will dominate broadcasting in the province. It already owned CFCY and CHLQ-FM Charlottetown, and operates CHTN Charlottetown, the province's fourth commercial radio station, under the terms of a Local Management Agreement with the station's owner, NewCap Inc. The Commission said it considered the concentration of ownership issues raised but these were outweighed by preservation of the local service of CJRW, which has not made a profit in the past three years. The Commission has also approved licence transfers as part of a corporate re-organisation by Telemedia Inc under which it will transfer a number of its radio assets, essentially located in Quebec, to Télémédia Radio (Québec) inc. Involved in Quebec are: CFIX-FM Chicoutimi, CHLN and CHEY-FM Trois-Rivières, CHLT Sherbrooke, CIMF-FM Hull and its transmitter CIMF-FM-1 Hawkesbury, Ontario, CKTS Sherbrooke, CITF-FM Quebec City, CITE-FM Montréal and CITE-FM-1 and its transmitter CITE-FM-2 Sherbrooke. Télémédia Radio (Québec) inc. is also acquiring the assets of two radio networks: Radio Rock Détente, Montréal and the CHLN/CKSM Network, Trois-Rivières/Shawinigan, as well as the digital radio undertaking CITE-FM Montréal. In Ireland there was no activity on the official licence front but there has been a clampdown on radio pirates (see RNW Aug 10). In the UK, the Radio Authority has given automatic renewal of the licences of Heart FM's West Midlands regional FM licence and Galaxy FM's Severn Estuary regional FM licence under regulations which allow this if the station is providing a service on the area's relevant digital multiplex. It has also announced that it is inviting 15 organisations to run pilot Access Radio stations under its experimental scheme (See RNW Licence News June 3). The successful applicants will be expected to air next year and the Authority says the groups chosen reflected, "all four of the home nations, rural and urban areas, including links with urban regeneration projects, services for ethnic minorities in the Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities, a wide range of age groups from children to older people, Christian based stations, and a range of financial models." Groups invited to apply are: RADIO AWAZ- to serve the Asian population in central Glasgow, broadcasting in Urdu, Punjabi and English; GLYN TAFF TENANTS' AND RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION (GTFM) AND THE UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN (FUSION), Pontypridd - with daytime output from GTFM and local schools and colleges and evening output from University students. NORTHERN VISIONS RADIO - A mainly speech-based community access service within Belfast. SHINE FM, Banbridge, Co. Down -A Christian-based community service and training project run by an inter-denominational Christian charity; BRADFORD COMMUNITY BROADCASTING- a Bradford inner-city project to give a voice to disadvantaged communities, help promote social inclusion and cultural understanding, and give broadcasting opportunities for local people; MANCHESTER COMMUNITY RADIO GROUP - to operate two community stations for Wythenshawe plus Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme. COMMUNITY RADIO TRAINING - to reflect the cultural needs, values and aspirations of the Afro-Caribbean and broader community- within central Birmingham; TAKEOVER RADIO - A Leicester children's radio station incorporating contributions from and by children aged 8 to 14; THE KARIMIA INSTITUTE AND THE ASIAN WOMEN'S PROJECT- a station aimed at the Asian population within Nottingham; CROSS RHYTHMS - a Christian radio station for Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme; FOREST OF DEAN COMMUNITY RADIO - to serve the distinctive rural district of Forest of Dean, linking activity, training and production in various different locations; ANGEL RADIO - to provide entertainment, stimulation and information of specific relevance to persons aged 60 and above in Havant, Hampshire SOUND VISION TRUST (SVT)- to provide a multicultural service for the Nightingale Estate in Clapton, Hackney, East London, and surrounding area. LONDON MUSICIANS' COLLECTIVE- an art radio station; THE PANJABI CENTRE - A radio service for the Panjabi community of Southall, West London. In the US, as well as routine business, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has started to look at additional frequency bands for advanced wireless services. Amongst those being looked at are bands currently designated for the Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), the Unlicensed Personal Communications Service, the Amateur Radio Service, and the Multipoint Distribution Service . Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on reallocating some spectrum in the 1910-1930 MHz, 1990-2025 MHz, 2150-2160 MHz, 2165-2200 MHz, and 2390-2400 MHz bands for new advanced wireless services In January of last year the Commission sought similar comment on the same issue including bands currently used for cellular, broadband Personal Communications Service (PCS), and Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) services, as well as five other frequency bands: 1710-1755 MHz, 1755-1850 MHz, 2110-2150 MHz, 2160-2165 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz. Numerous comments were filed in that proceeding. Previous ABA: Previous CRTC: Previous FCC: Previous Licence News: Previous Telemedia: Previous UK Radio Authority: ABA web site CRTC web site: FCC web site: UK Radio Authority web site: 2001-08-12: BBC
London Live has broken into
Capital FM/ TalkSport stranglehold on
soccer commentary rights for London soccer clubs.
It has secured exclusive local rights for Tottenham Football Club's FA and Worthington Cup ties, will share Premier League cover with TalkSport, has agreed deals with Crystal Palace and Millwall for live coverage of their Nationwide League games. It is also sharing live rights to Watford's Nationwide League games with BBC Three Counties Radio. Previous BBC: Previous Capital; Previous TalkSport: 2001-08-11: At least 8 pirate radio stations in Ireland have stopped broadcasts and another five could face disconnection from electricity and telephone utilities following a campaign by officials from Ireland's Office of the Director of Telecommunications (ODTR) according to the Irish Times. There are an estimated 40 pirate radio stations in Ireland and station manages and landlords of premises where they are based can be fined up to £20000 and jailed for two years. A spokeswoman for the ODTR told the paper they had been to 13 pirate stations in Dublin, Limerick, and Monaghan in the past month and legal action is being prepared against some landlords. A new Communications Bill, doe to go on the stature book in the fall, will allow pirate radio equipment to be seized. Irish Times search page (look for radio and August 10); ODTR web site:
|
2001-08-11: Time
for another look at digital and satellite radio
as iBiquity announced that its digital FM test results
have been submitted to the US National Radio Systems Committee (NRSC)
and XM Satellite Radio's publicity campaign
starts in US cinemas.
iBiquity says that its tests show their digital system "significantly outperforms today's analogue FM radio in terms of audio quality and reception, while providing robust coverage throughout the markets served." It also says the system "preserves the integrity of the current analogue FM broadcasting system." In all iBiquity says it has now conducted more than 95,000 hours of field tests of its digital FM system. The company is well on the way to completing its AM tests and results are expected to be submitted to the NRSC in the fall. iBiquityPresident and CEO Robert Struble commented, "We fully expect the FCC to authorize our digital FM system in early 2002 before the launch of commercial digital broadcast equipment at the National Association of Broadcasters' Conference in April 2002." If iBiquity gets its hoped for approval, Struble expects commercial rollout to start late in 2002 with stations in New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Miami followed by a retail sales campaign early in 2003. On the satellite front, both XM and Sirius Satellite Radio have now announced agreements to carry CNN headline news and XM has now commenced its national advertising campaign with 60-second sports in US cinemas. The campaign, called "Radio to the Power of X," is a multimedia effort anchored by a television campaign and will include radio, magazines, newspapers, direct mail, outdoor and online in the run up to the company's commercial service launch on September 12. Previous iBiquity: Previous Sirius: Previous Struble: Previous XM: iBiquity web site: Sirius Web site: XM Web site: (RNW note- both of these sites offer sample programming): 2001-08-10:
US radio commentator, Paul Harvey,
the "most listened to radio voice" in the US, was back on air briefly
Thursday with a taped greeting in which he thanked listeners for their
concern over a virus attack which had weakened his vocal cords.
Harvey, whose broadcasts from Chicago air on around 1200 US radio stations plus 400 US Armed Service stations round the world, has been off air since May. He is syndicated by ABC and has a daily audience of some 24 million. ABC News Radio vice-president Chris Berry told the Arizona Republic that Harvey, who had been scheduled to undergo surgery, had instead taken outpatient treatment. He added that Harvey's voice was not yet up to resuming full time his reports, which include two newscasts and "The Rest of the Story", and it was not yet known when he would return permanently. Harvey, who is 82, lives in Phoenix during the winter. Previous ABC, US: Previous Harvey: New York Times/AP report: 2001-08-10: The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation has announced that
it is to substantially increase the regional programme content of its
radio services using funding provided for in Australia's Federal budget
in May.
It will launch two new regional stations and is hiring some 50 more staff spread over 32 stations. One new regional station will be at Ballarat in Victoria; the other will be based at either Narrogin or Katanning to provide cover for the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Sue Howard, Director of ABC Radio, said," "This extra funding means ABC Local Radio is now better placed to serve the needs and interests of regional communities across Australia." "Regional communities in all states and territories will see a boost in the number of local staff working in their community and reporting on the issues that are relevant to them". "The rollout of these new positions will provide the Local Radio network with an additional 15 radio shifts, dramatically reducing the current level of syndicated material." New local programme shifts will be shared between Regional Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia and additional rural reporters will be placed in key regions. Previous ABC, Australia: Previous Howard: ABC, Australia, web site (News releases): 2001-08-10:
Latest US Radio
Advertising Bureau (RAB) figures show combined local and national
dollars for radio down 8%; local numbers down 4%; and national down
20% compared to June, 2000.
For the second quarter, combined figures were down 8%, local was down 4% and national down 21%. For June, RAB's sales index for, which takes 1998 as the base year at 100, thus eliminating the effects of the dot.com boom, was 126 combined, 131.5 for local and 110.4 for national; for the year to date the index was 130 combined, 132.2 for local and 121.6 for national. Gary Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer, RAB, said, "Radio's core business remains solid." "Radio's foothold remains in the local marketplace where business is currently healthier than on the national front. As national stabilizes, all indicators point to a turn toward positive growth for Radio in 4th Quarter of 2001." For Spanish-language network Entravision, second quarter results showed sparkle from its TV group where pro-forma revenues were up but falls in other divisions. This included radio whose pro forma net revenues were down 7.2% to $18.1million and whose Broadcast cash flow (BCF) was down 6.6% to 7.2 million. Overall Net revenue for the second quarter of 2001 increased 59%, compared to 2000 Q2, to $56.9 million, primarily attributable to acquisitions including assets from Z-Spanish Infinity Assets. overall EBITDA was up 43% to $16.9 million. Same station results showed a 20% increase to $19.5 million in net revenues and a 40% increase in BCF to $9,4 million. For the third quarter, Entravision is predicting overall net revenues unchanged over 2000 Q3 but radio net revenues down 5% to $18.25 million. Previous Entravision: Previous Fries: Previous RAB: Entravision web site: RAB (US) web site: 2001-08-10: The
BBC, which re-branded its GLR London radio
station in March last year as "London Live" is considering
yet another re-branding.
This timethe station name may be changed to "BBC London", which would be in line withthat planned for the autumn re-launch of BBC TV's "Newsroom South East". A Corporation spokeswoman told the UK Guardian that no final decision had yet been made about London Live and its website but added, "We always said that when we launched the first tri-media service for London, we would look to create a cohesive ID for it." The previous change did not help the station's ratings. RAJAR (Radio Joint Audio Research) ratings for GLR to the end of March 2000 showed a weekly reach of 404000 and a 1.2% audience share but latest RAJAR figures to the end of June showed weekly reach down to 288000 and audience share of 0.8%. Previous BBC: Previous RAJAR: UK Guardian report: 2001-08-09:
More US radio second quarter results, starting
with religious radio group Salem Communications
whose net revenues for he quarter were up 36.7% to $33.9 million
with Broadcast Cash Flow (BCF) up 12.4% to $12.7 million.
On a same station basis, net broadcasting revenue was up 10/5% and BCF was up 7.8%. The company says that BCF as a percentage of net revenues went down to 37.5% in the quarter from 45.6% in the 2000Q2 because of the impact of recently acquired radio stations that are currently operating at lower margins than pre-existing stations. EBITDA, including the company's non-broadcast media businesses, increased to $8.9 from $6.5 million in 2000. Edward G. Atsinger III, Salem's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Our strong second quarter results highlight the strength of our unique business model." "Our second quarter same station revenue increase of 10.5% demonstrates Salem's ability to deliver strong results in a challenging economic environment." "…….Our long-term outlook is also very positive. Our 11 stations with recently launched music formats have continued to improve their ratings performance and we are pleased with our progress to date." "Our new music stations in Cincinnati and Atlanta both reached a cash flow positive position this quarter as planned." "In addition, we have been very active on the acquisition front. ….. These assets will drive future substantial revenue and cash flow growth. Salem now owns and/or operates 56 radio stations in the top 25 markets, making it the third largest top 25 market radio operator in terms of number of stations. For the rest of the year it is forecasting third quarter same station revenue growth of approximately 10% and overall net broadcast revenues of $35.0 million and BCF of $13.3 million. For the full year it expects net broadcasting revenues of $52.0 million; a 5.3% increase on 2000; BCF up 5.3% to $52.0 million; EBITDA, including the company's non-broadcast media businesses, up 15.6% on 2000 to $37.0 million ; and After tax cash flow (ATCF) of $0.87 per share compared to $0.81 per share in 2000. For Beasley Broadcasting, the results were not as strong: it had a net loss of $4.1 million, or $0.17 per share, compared to net income of $1.0 million, or $0.04 on a per share basis, in the second quarter of 2000. Net revenue was up 11.6% to $30.2 million but BCF was down by $400000 to $8.5 million and ATCF was down to $0.13 per diluted share compared to $0.21 per diluted share in 2000. On a same station basis, consolidated net revenue for the quarter was down $1.4 million to $24 million and BCF was down $1.9 million to $7 million. On a pro forma basis (as if the recent acquisition of two stations in Augusta were completed on April 1, 2001) consolidated net revenue for the second quarter of 2001 would have been $30.2 million and BCF would have been $8.5 million. George G. Beasley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the results, "The first half of the year was one of the toughest periods of time we've faced at Beasley." "A number of bright spots, however, have made us cautiously optimistic for the remainder of the year." Beasley is not forecasting beyond the third quarter but says that for this it expects actual revenue of approximately $29.5 million, BCF of approximately $7.9 million, EBITDA of approximately $6.6 million, and ATCF per share of approximately $0.10 per share. On a same-station basis for the third quarter, the Company expects revenue to be down 8% against year-ago levels and BCF to be down as much as 25%. Also reporting was Jones Media Networks whose radio net revenues increased 8% to 11.7 million although EBITDA was down 16% to $2,5 million. The company says this fall was because of the addition of new programmes, which are still not into profit. Ron Hartenbaum, President of Jones Radio Networks, said they were implementing cost cutting measures including the elimination or consolidation of products that did not meet profitability criteria or fir the company's long-tem strategy. Previous Atsinger: Previous Beasley Broadcasting: Previous George Beasley: Previous Salem: Beasley web site: Salem web site: 2001-08-09:
Latest Australian radio ratings show that
new Sydney FM station, Nova FM owned
by the UK Daily Mail Group, has exceeded its own forecasts to take a
7.3% FM audience share in the first full AC Nielsen McNair Survey
since it went on air at the start of April.
Although Austereo stations 2-Day FM and TripleM maintained their top ranking, Nova has taken third rank behind them in the 18-24 year old demographic. Overall Nova was fifth in terms of share. Still top was 2Day, which lost share from 14.8% to 14.2%; then 2UE, which dropped from a 13.5% to an 11.7% share tied with Triple M, which was up from an 11.3% share in second rank. Then followed ABC 702 with a 9.1% share then Nova. At breakfast time, Alan Jones kept 2UE in the lead with a 15.4% share, down from 17.7%. In other Australian main cities, the top three were as follows (previous share in brackets): Adelaide: SAFM with 25.9% (26.4%); 5AA with 13.5% (12.4%); Mix with 13% (14.3%): Brisbane - B105FM with 26.6% (27.5%); Triple M with 18.2% (16.2%); 4KQ with 10.9% (10.9%): Melbourne - Fox FM with 16.8% (16.9%); 3AW with 14.7% (14.1%); 3MM with unchangd 9.8% Perth - 94.5FM with 19.6% (19.8%); 96FM with 16.8% (16.9%); All New with 14.1% (14.9%): Previous 2UE: Previous Austereo: Previous Jones: Previous Nova: 2001-08-09:
Denver promoter "Nobody in Particular Presents"
has filed a law suit in the US District Court in the city
against Clear Channel alleging that the giant radio broadcaster
and concert promoter has violated anti-trust laws by leveraging its
radio playlists to freeze out competition.
Last year Clear Channel took over promoter SFX in 4.4 billion dollar cash and shares deal (See RNW July 30 2000). The suit seeks unspecified damages and says that Clear Channel has denied airtime to acts that use competing promoters and also blocked rivals from opportunities to advertise their concerts. It adds that Clear Channel has "engaged in a vast array of anti-competitive, predatory and exclusionary practices" to extend its monopoly power in the concert market with the result that acts that would hire promoters such as Nobody in Particular to promote their concerts must now use Clear Channel or risk losing air play of their music and on-air promotional support. The lawsuit also says that in Denver, Clear Channel owns or operates eight radio stations, including the only three dedicated to the rock-music format and that ownership allows the company to dictate the level of airplay and promotion for every rock act playing the city. Nobody in Particular Presents said Clear Channel's stations have consigned competitors' concert ads to "undesirable" times, charged premium rates or tried to exclude them. Jesse Morreale, a co-owner of Nobody in Particular Presents, told the Los Angeles Times, "We've just watched this whole thing evolve . . . to what we feel is a very unfair situation that threatens to put us out of business." "We feel that our ability to compete is being severely restricted. We didn't see any other way to resolve it but to go to court." Clear Channel denied the allegations, saying that the company played by the rules and added that this was really a "market fight." Previous Clear Channel: Los Angeles Times report: 2001-08-08:
More US second quarter radio results including
those of the big one, Clear Channel, which
reported net revenues for the quarter to June 30 of $2.2billion, a 126%
increase over Q2, 2000.
EBITDA (operating cash flow less corporate expenses) was up 63% at $611 million; Attributable EBITDA (EBITDA including non-consolidated affiliates) as also up 63% at $642 million; and After Tax Cash Flow (ATCF) was up 73% at $470 million (ATCF per share was 75 cents, a 3% increase on the 73 cents of Q2, 2000). On a pro-forma basis, net revenues for the quarter were down 1.5% to $2.2billion and EBITDA was 13% down at $615 million. Lowry Mays, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased with our results during, what continued to be, a difficult advertising environment." "Our results for the quarter were in line with our previous guidance…." For the third quarter, Clear Channel is forecasting Net revenue of $1.27 billion, EDITDA of $580 million, attributable EBITDA of $600 million and a net loss per share of $0.37. Clear Channel says the continued integration of AMFM, coupled with strong ratings gains in a majority of its markets, positions its radio division to continue this positive performance trend for the foreseeable future. Infinity-run syndication company, Westwood One, also reported fairly strong results with record operating cash flow and free cash flow but net revenues themselves were down 2% to $133,7 million, attributed by the company to a reduction in Internet associated revenues and a slowdown in advertising in general. Net income for the quarter of was $12.1 million ($.11 per basic and diluted share) up 14% on 2000 when it was $.10 per basic share and $.09 per diluted share. EBITDA was up 5% to a record $45.1 million. Joel Hollander, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "This was the Company's sixteenth consecutive quarter of record EBITDA growth. Westwood achieved these record operating results in spite of a slowing economy and on top of the 40% EBITDA growth achieved in the second quarter of 2000. Westwood is forecasting full year EBITDA in the range of $178-180 million. An upbeat report also from Radio Unica, which reported revenues up 28% to $9.9 million in the quarter; radio revenues were up 13% to $8.7 million and the company is forecasting revenue to rise by 16-19% for the third quarter. EBITDA, however, was negative, 25% down at $2,4 million. Another Spanish group, Entercom, was more downbeat, assessing the advertising market as static and not getting better. Entercom reported net revenues for the quarter down 2%to $94.6 million and BCF down 2% to$40.6 million. Entercom is forecasting third quarter revenues down between 1% and 2% on 2000 Q3. And a rather mixed picture from Cumulus, which reported Q2 net revenues down 12.1% to $55.1million but EBITDA up 18.2% to $14.7 million and Broadcast Cash Flow up 11.6% to $18.4 million. After tax cash flow was $2.5 million (7cents per common share) compared t $1.9 million (5 cents per common share) in 2000. On a same station basis, net revenues were down 4.4% to $35.9 million for the quarter but BCF was up 26.9% to $11.4 million. CEO Lew Dickey Jr., commenting on the company's reorganisation over the past year, said, "This fiscal discipline continues to serve us well as we navigate a particularly difficult advertising environment." Previous Clear Channel: Previous Cumulus: Previous Dickey: Previous Entercom: Previous Hollander: Previous Mays: Previous Unica: Previous Westwood One: Clear Channel web site: Cumulus web site: Entercom web site: Unica web site: Westwood One web site: 2001-08-08:
A further jump in Internet listening last
week has taken MeasureCast's Internet Radio Index, which
was based at 100 at the start of the year, to 207 meaning that listening
has more than doubled this year.
Of the top 25 stations ranked by total time spent listening (TTSL), 19 recorded a listening increase in the week to August 5 and 16 recorded an increase in Cumulative Persons, a measure of the number of people listening. At the top, the only change was a switch in rankings between ESPN and Virgin Radio: The top 5 ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were (with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets): 1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 174,716 (159,291); CP 45,027 (44,433) - Position unchanged. 2): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 109,575 (99,981); CP 15,397 (14,139) -Previously 3rd. 3): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 104,536 (106,315); CP14, 361 (17,113) - Previously 2nd. 4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 71,667 (69,096); 10,542 CP (10,792) - - Position unchanged. 5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM TTSL 39,970 (38,103) CP 6,201 (6,098) - Position unchanged. Previous MeasureCast ratings: MeasureCast web site: 2001-08-08: Clear
Channel Radio Chief Executive Officer Randy Michaels has appointed
veteran executive John Hogan as President
and Chief Operating Officer in succession to Kenneth
O'Keefe, who retired from the company at the end of June (See
RNW May 26).
Hogan was a Senior Vice President and has overseen 15 Clear Channel Radio regions for the last two years including Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas. Also promoted is another senior Vice-President, Jerome L. (Jerry) Kersting, who becomes Chief Financial Officer. Kersting, who was involved in Clear Channel's acquisitions of Jacor and AMFM, will retain his corporate development role. Previous Clear Channel: Previous Michaels: Previous OKeefe: Clear Channel web site: 2001-08-07:
Doug Tracht is back on mainstream US
airwaves this week as he fills in for Radio
America host Oliver North who is syndicated to some 50 affiliates.
But he's not using his "Greaseman" title while he stands in. Tracht is booked until Wednesday although he could end up filling in for the whole week; he's also continuing to do his self-syndicated morning show (see RNW March 7). The Oliver North Show has no outlet in Washington, DC, where Tracht was based when he was fired from Infinity's WARW-FM for racist remarks and where his own show is based. In DC, Westwood One syndicated host C Gordon Liddy, failed to appear on Clear Channel's WTNT-AM. Liddy lost his spot on Infinity's WJFK-FM in a re-shuffle at the station last month (see RNW July 22) although Infinity-run Westwood One continues to syndicate him. Last week WTNT issued a news release about Liddy's move to them and Liddy spent much of his show talking about the move. The reason he didn't start on WTNT, according to host Michael Graham, whose show preceded the Liddy slot, was to do with negotiations currently under way between Liddy and Westwood One over a new contract. Previous Clear Channel: Previous Liddy: Previous Tracht: Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity: Previous Westwood One: Radio America site (carries the Oliver North show): 2001-08-07:
Arbitron and Clear
Channel have now reached agreement until Fall 2004 on a radio
ratings deal.
The two organisations had been at loggerheads since the end of 2000 over ratings contracts that expired with the Fall 2000 and Winter 2001 surveys for Clear Channel stations in 99 markets and some of their stations in a further 31 markets (See RNW July 18). Ratings deals were under negotiation for the Spring 2001 survey and Clear Channel had been talking of getting ratings from another provider. It is by far the largest Arbitron radio ratings subscriber, accounting for around 20% of Arbitron's revenues in 2000. In a statement, Arbitron President and CEO, Steve Morris, said, "We are pleased that we have been able to reach a fair agreement that is to the benefit of Arbitron and Clear Channel Radio." The agreement covers all Clear Channel radio stations in 187 Arbitron-rated markets where Clear Channel has a radio presence. Previous Arbitron: Previous Clear Channel: Previous Morris: Arbitron web site (links to news release): 2001-08-07: The
Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has found Melbourne
radio station 3MP breached Australia's 1992 Broadcasting Services Act
by not tagging as "political matter" a number of interviews with Liberal
Party Ministers, including Victoria state's caretaker Premier, and with
the Liberal Party candidate in the 1999 Frankston East supplementary
election.
The station had broadcast a five-hour live show from a shopping centre of which four hours was paid for by the Liberal Party but had neither identified the contents of the broadcast clearly nor made it clear as required by the Act that the broadcast was paid for by the Liberal Party although it did mention the paid nature of the broadcast at one stage. For most of the interviews, all of which were found to have been "political" the Liberal Party provided suggested talking points or lead-ins and it was also responsible for approving the content of the broadcast. In addition, the Authority noted that three additional licence conditions have subsequently been attached as programme standards including a standard requiring advertisements to be distinguished from other programmes. Because these were introduced after the investigation started they have not been included in the investigations although the broadcasts as set out in the ABA judgements make it clear that there were breaches of these conditions. The ABA also considered whether 3MP had given other parties a 'reasonable opportunity' to broadcast election matter as required by the Act but found that in this case, although it would have been "very difficult for the Labor Party to respond in a similar format to the Liberal Party's outside broadcast" the evidence did not sustain a complaint on these grounds. It is taking no further action at this stage although it says it will monitor the station's output closely to ensure future compliance with the Act. Previous ABA: ABA web site - links to news release and report (358 kb RTF file): 2001-08-06:
An eclectic mix of topics from the newspapers
this past week, ranging from ruminations on great voices through
music on BBC Radio 3 to children's radio in Baltimore,
and Chicago columnist Robert Feder taking a dig at the over-promotion
tendencies of one station.
First great voices and Paul Donovan's column in the UK Sunday Times which starts by noting that the BBC World Service commentary on the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer was delivered by the late Richard Burton. It was Burton's first and last commentary - done partly as a favour to his brother, BBC radio producer Graham Jenkins - and Donovan comments," we shall never, as Hamlet almost said about his father, see or hear his like again." He continues, "What, indeed, has happened to the great voices - Burton, Olivier, Gielgud, Enoch Powell, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Tom Fleming - voices that made your spine tingle, your lip tremble and the hairs on the back of your head stand up?" "Great voices seem to have gone, along with great men. This is the age of the common man, and therefore common accents." "Estuary English rules. It is all part of 'diversity'. " Donovan notes that there are still plenty of "good (as opposed to great) voices on the air, enumerates a few, and then gives a plug for Your Hundred Best Tunes on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday evenings, presented by Alan Keith, for an example of "what 'received pronunciation' and 'BBC English' are." Keith, writes Donovan," speaks with the kind of studied, unhurried, formal, perfect diction that some people think went out with wing collars and Bakelite." "It is magnificent, and never makes the slightest concession to modern vulgarity." "I am sure he will not mind my suggesting that anyone who is interested tune in fairly soon, since he is now 92, and anyone who is 92 does not expect to go on broadcasting for ever." Moving from the past towards the future, Athima Chansanchai in the Baltimore Sun reports on Annapolis station WYRE-AM's attempts to lure a young audience "with bedtime stories and children's songs. " The programme, Kidstuff, airs nightly from 7 p.m. moving from "upbeat music that gradually slows down to lullabies and a bedtime story, signalling the end of each show at 8:30." One host, Brian "Uncle Jarvis" Markley, comments, "Shows for younger people don't exist anymore…….Radio is entertainment for the community, and it's a responsibility we have to the community." Station manager Melissa Owens says Kidstuff is part of the community-oriented station's initiative of public service, which aims to have something for everybody. The station recently changed from a country music format into a more eclectic mix of talk shows and music and Kidstuff's success, says Owens, is something she measures by "'word of mouth.……… I get a constant stream of calls from parents, new sponsors and community organizations." "They're echoing the same sentiment, that there are not a lot of things on TV for them to watch as a family. In that regard we're giving them something they're lacking." If nothing else the programme is helping with public involvement as the pre-recorded bedtime stories are told by volunteers with, surprisingly, the large majority being male. Another station that has changed its format somewhat is BBC Radio3, once perceived as a purely "classical" station (rather inaccurately as anyone looking at schedules of 30 to 40 years ago would find) It is now a major source of "world music" in the UK and the change forms the basis of an article by Louise Jury in the UK Independent, which attributes the broadening of the station's output to Roger Wright, controller for the past three years. He is known for enthusiasm about a wide range of music and the station is active not only in promoting classical and world music but also other genres such as Jazz. It is aligned with BBC Radio 2 in creating the BBC's annual Jazz Awards ( see RNW Columnists, July 30) and in January is inaugurating the first World Music Awards. "The bottom line is to try to raise the profile of world music," says Wright. "There isn't another radio outlet for it." In a more general comment he refers to Radio 3 as the natural home of cutting-edge culture - whether that be in world music, jazz, drama or debate. And finally, a rather more jaundiced view from Robert Feder who asks in the Chicago Sun Times "What exactly does it mean when a radio station makes a "guarantee" to its listeners?" His answer? "In the case of WMVP-AM (1000), apparently not much…… For as long as anyone can remember, the sports talk station has been mimicking the hype of its ESPN Radio parent network by promising "breaking sports news first--guaranteed." " Just last week, the station opened a report on the Cubs' signing of Fred McGriff with those very words. Trouble is, ESPN Radio 1000 wasn't the first with the news. In fact, it wasn't even second." The station's reaction? "I'd say it's a fair issue for debate, but I've never heard anybody inquire about that before," said Bob Snyder, general manager of ESPN Radio 1000. "It's a marketing statement intended to position the station and not necessarily to be dissected at face value." Now think of him as a snake oil salesman?? Or is that unfair? Over to you! Previous BBC: Previous Columnists: Previous Donovan: Previous Feder: Previous Snyder: Previous Wright: BBC Radio 2 site: BBC Radio 3 site: Baltimore Sun - Chansanchai: Chicago Sun-Times - Feder: UK Independent - Jury: UK Sunday Times - Donovan: WYRE-AM web site 2001-08-06: Scottish
Media Group (SMG) has seen its acquisition of a 29.5%
in rival Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) ,
built up in a number of open market purchases (See
RNW Mar 1) given an all
clear by Britain's by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The OFT launched an unpublicised investigation because it felt the holding gave SMG a "material influence" over SRH and could help SMG to "bundle" sales across different media to the disadvantage of rivals and advertisers. It concluded the holding it did not pose adverse competition issues. The ruling is seen as clearing the way for SMG to take over SRH should the government, as expected, change UK media ownership laws so as to "caps" on holding and thus allow consolidation in the country's media. Previous SMG: Previous SRH: 2001-08-05:
Last week was quiet on the licence front with
nothing much happening concerning radio in Australia,
Ireland and the US.
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved the conversion of CJFC-AM, Kamloops, British Columbia to FM. It has also approved additional transmitters at Pritchard and Chase to rebroadcast the programming of the new FM station, which has yet to select call letters but which will offer CFJC's Country music format and its news and sports cover. Existing re-broadcasting FM transmitters at Clearwater and Merritt will be retained. The commission has also approved a new English language FM in Cobourg/Port Hope, Ontario; the new station's owners currently operate CHUC, Cobourg. As well as the above, the CRTC has also published notice of applications by CIEL-FM. (formerly CJFP-FM), Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, to amend its licence so as to delete the requirement for a minimum weekly 50% of spoken word programming and of CHLM-FM. Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, to decrease the percentage of French-language vocal music (FVM) that it must broadcast from 95% to 85%. In the UK, the Radio Authority has approved the extension of Jazz FM's northwest regional licence, published assessments of some recent licence awards, and published an updated list of planned new licence advertisements. Jazz FM's licence was renewed for 8 years automatically under regulations, which apply when a station is to provide a programme service on a 'relevant' digital radio multiplex. The assessments published were those of the Ayr Digital Multiplex to Score Digital (See Licence News July 8 and of the new Omagh and Enniskillen licence(also Licence News July 8). In the case of the former, where Score, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scottish Radio Holdings plc., was facing competition from Switchdigital (Scotland) Ltd., the Authority had asked Score to submit revised technical proposals because its initial plans did not fit the coverage brief. The re-submitted proposal impressed the Authority by its attention to detail and the local support it had garnered and the inclusion of popular local analogue services, West Sound AM and West FM, in the bouquet of programme services offered. The Omagh and Enniskillen licence was awarded to Radio West against competition from Fast FM Ltd., Southwest FM Ltd., and Lisara Ltd's Westside 101 application, which was disqualified because it did not comply with cross-media ownership regulations. The Authority's assessment says all the three remaining applicants demonstrated "distinctive strengths and capabilities" but it felt that Radio West would best be able to meet statutory requirements. Radio West is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Londonderry service Q102.9, which also operates a service in Coleraine; it plans a24 hour a day service, 18 hours of which will be locally produced and presented, targeting primarily an audience of 25 to 54 year olds and include a minimum of 20% speech. Finally the sequence for advertising new licences on the authority's current working list; these will include a new East Midlands regional licence and local licences for Mid Ulster, Worthing, Skye and Lochalsh, Barnsley, Yeovil, Gairloch and Loch Ewe and Maidstone. The licences will be advertised at the rate of one a month when no existing licence is re-advertised; In addition the Authority noted that the sequence of licence advertisements for the final four areas on the 'working list' - those for Buxton, Helensburgh, Livingston (West Lothian) and North Norfolk - will depend upon the resolution of various frequency planning issues, and has yet to be decided. Previous CRTC: Previous Licence News: Previous UK Radio Authority: CRTC web site: UK Radio Authority web site: 2001-08-05:
While US radio organisations are cutting back
on streaming because of problems with royalty payments (See
RNW August 4), British Groups
have also been cutting back on new media activities for existing financial
reasons.
GWR, which owns Classic FM and Mercury radio stations, is to cut back on its Internet activities and get rid of 46 jobs to save an estimated £1.3 million a year. GWR's director of new media, Simon Ward, said the company was slimming down operations at its lifestyle portal, Koko.com, which offers news, features and entertainment. He added that the changes would allow GWR to concentrate on the most popular parts of Koko -those with radio-related content and local information. GWR is to put most of Koko's advertising sales and content production in the hands of its radio stations. UK media group Chrysalis is also cutting back on its internet investments; it is aiming to sell its minority interests in Internet companies and is also looking closely at its flagship, Rivals.net, which the company says has done well in every area except revenues. Chrysalis raised £27 million for new media investments of which it has spent some £22 million. It has folded its Puremix radio website into its general new media operations and the URL is now just re-directed to Rivals.net. (See RNW February 16). Previous Chrysalis: Previous GWR: 2001-08-04:
The whole economics of radio stations streaming
their output, already not particularly strong as evinced by the number
of companies cutting back on or dropping out of streaming altogether,
have been hit by a Philadelphia US District Court ruling that broadcasters
who stream their terrestrial signals over the Internet must pay additional
royalties.
The decision by Judge Berle Schiller upholds a ruling by the US Copyright Office (See RNW Dec 9, 2000); he dismissed an appeal against the ruling by Bonneville International, saying of broadcasters claims that they were exempt from paying webcasting because of a provision of copyright law that exempts "nonsubscription broadcast transmission." "It strains credulity to suggest that Congress intended to exempt AM/FM streaming, which is global in nature, while simultaneously limiting retransmissions to specific [Federal Communications Commission]-defined geographic areas," said Judge Schiller. He pointed out that Congress restricted retransmission of broadcasts to 150 miles of the original broadcast transmitter. The US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said it was reviewing its options, which include an appeal. "Any additional fee to compensate record companies would be unfair and unreasonable," said NAB President and CEO Edward O. Fritts in a statement. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Digital Media Association (DIMA) both welcomed the decision; the RIAA represents the big record companies and President and CEO Hilary Rosen said," We now look forward to working with the broadcasters for a smooth transition into this marketplace." DIMA represents Webcasters and digital distributors, and its Executive Director Jonathan Potter said they were concerned about the fundamental anti-competitive impact if broadcasters who were Webcasting had an advantage over organisations that were only Webcasting. Although DIMA agreed on this issue with the RIAA, the two organisations are at loggerheads over the amount to be paid in royalties: DIMA has suggested $0.0015 per music Webcast listener hour whilst the RIAA wants much more -- $0.004 per listener per song or 15 percent of gross revenue of the Webcaster. A three-member Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel began hearings earlier this week as the first step in a process, which must be completed by January 28, to set the royalty rates. For most, if not all, current streaming organisations, the RIAA figure would mean that streaming music was totally uneconomic leading to suggestions that the RIAA's real motive is to create a situation where only the recording companies can afford to be webcasters. Even worse for streaming organisations, back payments will be due for any music streamed from October 1998 when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) came into operation. The Act allowed streaming of music without authorisation but also created a liability for retroactive royalty payments when the details were finalised. Previous Bonneville: Previous Fritts: Previous NAB: Previous RIAA: Previous Rosen: NAB web site: RIAA web site: US Government site for PDF of DMCA:(370kb) 2001-08-04:
More US results, starting this time with
Dallas-headquartered Hispanic Broadcasting whose net revenues
for the quarter to June 30 were up 1.7% to nearly $66 million but whose
Broadcast Cash Flow dropped 9.4% to $27 million and EBITDA decreased
7.5% to $25.0 million.
After-tax cash flow, was down 4.1% to $21.5 million (20 cents a share compared to $22.4 million (20 cents a share) in Q2, 2000. Hispanic is forecasting third quarter net revenue to be up from 1% to 3% with BCF in the range $25-26 million; it assumes weaker advertising demand than anticipated for the quarter. For the full year, Hispanic is assuming a slight improvement towards the end of the year and is forecasting full year net revenue growth between 2.5% and 3.5% with BCF from $93 million to $95 million. Also reporting was the Disney Company, parent to ABC Radio, whose third fiscal quarter ended in June. Disney's overall revenues were slightly below predictions at $5.98 billion but cost-cutting pushed earnings per share to 23 cents excluding special charges such as those related to job reductions. This was the same as in 2000. Disney's media unit, which includes Disney's cable interests plus ABC TV and Radio and ESPN, saw revenues drop by 6% compared to 2000 to $2.14 billion; operating income was down more sharply, by 29 percent, to $470 million. Previous ABC (US): Previous Hispanic: 2001-08-04:
MeasureCast's July rankings
for streaming audiences, which have just been, released show Internet-only
stations claiming 27 of the top 50 slots compared to 26 in June.
45 of the top were also in June's top 50 but the balance between Internet-only stations and streams from terrestrial broadcasters swung in the favour of the latter; Terrestrial stations streamed 31% more hours (2.192 million) and |Internet-only ones 3.8 per cent fewer (2.835 million) than in June. At the top, there was considerable switching around but only one newcomer in the top 5 where ESPN and Cablemusic Hot 100 switched third and sixth places. The top 5 stations ranked by Total Time Spent listening (TTSL), with last month's TTSL and Cume (Cumulative Audience) in brackets were: 1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 679,946 (697,241); CP 119,791 (125,232) - Position unchanged- but listening down. 2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 416,183 (289,155); CP 44,702 (32,396) - Previously 4th. 3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 359,277 (185,186); CP 28,617 (17,026) -Previously 6th. 4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 293,075 (339,099); CP 27,260 (40,668) - Previously 2nd. 5): Internet only Alternative Rock 3WKUndergroundradio TTSL 216,135 (269,149) CP 51,114 (77,379) - Position unchanged- but listening down. RNW note: Doing a rough and ready conversion by taking the audience divided by the number of quarter-hours in July to get an approximate equivalent to terrestrial radio's AQH figure, the above shows top ranking Media-Amazing with an AQH of 228! Previous Measurecast ratings: MeasureCast web site: 2001-08-03:
More US second quarter results starting with
Atlanta-headquartered Cox Radio, the
third largest radio group in the US by revenue: It reported second quarter
revenues up 12.8% to $107.9 million and Broadcast cash flow up 14.9%
to $43.5 million.
On a same station basis net revenues, at $94.09 million, were 0.1% down on Q2, 2000, but BCF was up 4.4% at $39.25 million. For the third quarter Cox Radio expects pro forma net revenue growth of between 3% and 5% over the third quarter of 2000 and pro forma broadcast cash flow down not in excess of 3% from the third quarter of 2000. For the full year, Cox reiterates its previously announced guidance of pro forma net revenue growth of between 0% and 3% over 2000, pro forma broadcast cash flow growth of between 0% and 4% over 2000 and after-tax cash flow per share growth of between 6% and 11% over 2000. Lanham-headquartered Radio One Inc has reported a loss for the quarter although net revenues were up 91% to $62.3million and BCF up 106% to $34 million, fuelled massively by acquisitions. The company's net loss for the quarter to June 30 was was $14.6 million ( 22 cents a share) compared with a profit of $5.6 million(7 cents a share) for Q2, 2000.. On a same station basis, revenues were up 4% and BCF was up 12%. For the third quarter Radio One is dropping its guidance to net revenues of $65.5-67.5M and BCF of $34.35M It is not making any forecasts for the final quarter. Previous Cox Radio: Previous Radio 1 Inc. 2001-08-03:
More US second quarter results starting with
Atlanta-headquartered Cox Radio, the
third largest radio group in the US by revenue: It reported second quarter
revenues up 12.8% to $107.9 million and Broadcast cash flow up 14.9%
to $43.5 million.
On a same station basis net revenues, at $94.09 million, were 0.1% down on Q2, 2000, but BCF was up 4.4% at $39.25 million. For the third quarter Cox Radio expects pro forma net revenue growth of between 3% and 5% over the third quarter of 2000 and pro forma broadcast cash flow down not in excess of 3% from the third quarter of 2000. For the full year, Cox reiterates its previously announced guidance of pro forma net revenue growth of between 0% and 3% over 2000, pro forma broadcast cash flow growth of between 0% and 4% over 2000 and after-tax cash flow per share growth of between 6% and 11% over 2000. Lanham-headquartered Radio One Inc has reported a loss for the quarter although net revenues were up 91% to $62.3million and BCF up 106% to $34 million, fuelled massively by acquisitions. The company's net loss for the quarter to June 30 was was $14.6 million ( 22 cents a share) compared with a profit of $5.6 million(7 cents a share) for Q2, 2000.. On a same station basis, revenues were up 4% and BCF was up 12%. For the third quarter Radio One is dropping its guidance to net revenues of $65.5-67.5M and BCF of $34.35M It is not making any forecasts for the final quarter. Previous Cox Radio: Previous Radio 1 Inc. 2001-08-03: Latest
UK radio audience figures from RAJAR (Radio Joint Audio
Research) show the BBC losing a little
of its listening share, taking 51.3% of the total audience in the quarter
to June 2001 compared to 52.1% in the quarter to March 2001.
The overall weekly audience reached reported by RAJAR was up from 43.4 million to 44.5 million and the BBC's weekly reach was 32.3 million (66%) compared to 31.1 million (65%). Commercial radio overall took a 46.6% share with a weekly reach of 32.2 million (66%) compared to 31 million, (64%). Within the commercial sector Virgin Radio increased its weekly reach by some 6% or 210000 listeners, taking its audience share to 1.6% from 1.5% and Classic FM increased its weekly audience to 6.3 million (which with around 700000 listeners under 15 takes its total to more than 7 million) from 6.1 million. Compared to the previous quarter: *BBC Radio 1 gained around 915000 listeners and had a weekly reach of 23% compared to 21% and share of 9.6% compared to 9.1%; *BBC Radio 2 increased its audience by some 880,000 to end with weekly reach of 24% compared to 23% and share of 14.3% compared to 14.1%; *BBC Radio 3 gained some 78,000 listeners to end with a weekly reach of 4% (as before) and share of 1.1%(as before); *BBC Radio 4 gained some 228,000 listeners to end with a weekly reach of 19%(as before) and share of 10.7% compared to 11.3%;and * BBC Radio 5 lost some 10000 listeners to end up with a weekly reach of 12% (as before) and share of 4.2% compared to 4.3%. On the commercial side for national networks: *New Atlantic (Atlantic 252) gained some 133000 listeners to end up with the a 4 % reach compared to 3% and the same 0.8% share; *Classic FM gained some 270000 listeners to end up with the same 13% reach and a 4.3% share compared to 4.7%; *TalkSport lost 24000 listeners to end up with the same 5% reach and a 1.5% share compared to 1.7%; and *Virgin gained 208000 listeners to end up with a 7% reach compared to 5% (then for AM only) and 2.3% share compared to 1.5% (then for AM only). RNW note: The RAJAR figures show that people on the UK spent more time listening to radio than they did watching television; average listening hours per week were 3.48 hours compared to 3.46 hours spent watching TV. Previous Atlantic 252: Previous BBC: Previous Classic FM: Previous RAJAR: Previous TalkSport: Previous UK audience figures: Previous Virgin: RAJAR web site (links to quarterly reports): 2001-08-03: The
rumours were correct and the figures nearly spot-on(See
RNW Feb. 14): venerable
New York talk station WEVD-AM is to become
an outlet for ABC Radio's ESPN subsidiary
from the start of September under an agreement with the station owners,
The Forward Association.
ABC will pay the Forward Association an undisclosed sum in royalty fees during the programming agreement and the money will be used to support Forward's newspaper operations. In addition ABC Radio has the option of initiating negotiations to buy the station for $78 million during the next two years. WEVD was founded in 1927 as Debs Memorial Radio and its call letters are derived from Eugene V. Debs, the co- founder of the Socialist Party and a five-time presidential candidate. It was sold in 1931 to the Jewish Daily Forward, which later also acquired an FM station For some 60 years it carried programming in Yiddish as well as Hebrew, Greek, Korean, Polish and a long list of other languages. That format was changed to "news talk radio" in 1989, after the Association sold its FM station to sustain its Yiddish newspaper and to launch the English Forward the following year. The Forward Association's president, Dr. Barnett Zumoff, in a statement on the organisation's web site, says, "We take these steps in order to increase, secure and diversify the financial resources that will support our newspaper operations for the future." He added, "We have been publishers of The Forward for 104 years. Our time horizon is not one of months or years, but of generations." "Our primary mission is to provide American Jews with newspapers that hold a mirror to our culture, our politics, our values and our history, newspapers that feature the best writing on issues that matter to our diverse communities." "That's what we do in our very different publications in English, Yiddish and Russian." The Yiddish Forward was at one time the largest-circulation Jewish newspaper in the world with circulation peaking at 250,000 copies per day in the mid-1920s; The Forward papers were also very profitable but fell on hard times more recently, losing some $2 million last year. The deal will put ESPN up against Infinity's WFAN which brings in more advertising revenue than any other radio station in the New York market . After the deal Disney-owned ABC's New York operations will comprise WABC-AM and WPLJ-FM as well as programming WEVD-AM and WQEW-AM which, under an arrangement with the New York Times, is an outlet for its Radio Disney network; against this Infinity will have WCBS-AM, WINS-AM, WFAN-AM, WNEW-FM, WXRK-FM and WCBS-F Most staff at WEVD-AM are expected to lose their jobs and the Forward statement says that the Association does "not doubt that their skills will be put to productive use elsewhere in the radio industry." It adds, "For those employees who will not be needed under the new arrangements with ABC, severance provisions will be made to help tide them over.........We also will miss our loyal listeners, as they will miss our programming." "We are hopeful that other radio stations in the market will look carefully at the current WEVD programming and employees and provide outlets for that kind of program service." "Unfortunately, the unique opportunity now available to us to assure the future of our newspapers could not be achieved in any other way." In other US deals, Salem Communications Corporation has announced agreement with Thunderegg Wireless to purchase KJUN-FM in Portland, Oregon for $35.8 million. Salem expects to close the deal in the first quarter of next year but has agreed a local marketing agreement to turn the station programming and sales over to it in the fourth quarter of this year. Previous ABC-America: Previous Salem: Previous Viacom-CBS-Infinity: Previous WEVD: Forward Association web site: Forward Association statement: Save WEVD web site (RNW note- this carries links to various reports on the deal and is also planning to carry listener feedback.) 2001-08-02: The
Flood Tribunal, which is looking into the circumstances
concerning the granting of Ireland's first commercial
radio licence to Century Radio, which subsequently collapsed,
has been told that allegations of a "price list" for radio licences
were a malicious falsehood.
Former government press secretary PJ Mara, asked about the allegations that he and then minister for communications Ray Burke, were operating such a list, said, "The idea that Ray Burke and I were wandering around Dublin like two head waiters offering licences for sale is madness". In July last year Century co-founder James Stafford told the tribunal that his fellow co-founder Oliver Barry had told him about such a list under which the going rate was £90,000 for a national licence, £75,000 for a Dublin radio licence and £25000 for a local radio licence (See RNW July 20, 2000). Mara, who is now a political lobbyist, also testified about meetings with Barry as a possible consultant for Century Radio; he said that, although such a role seemed unlikely, he went to a meeting with Barry and Stafford, seeking a salary of £60000 to £70000 with half to be paid upfront. Asked about evidence by Stafford that something improper had been suggested at the meeting and that it had ended abruptly, Mara said he had no memory of that. He recalled that the tone of the meeting was friendly. He also said that he had never discussed the capping of state broadcaster RTÉ's advertising revenue with Barry or Burke, adding that the first he knew of the plan was when he had to announce it. RNW note: In March this year, Burke testified that he personally took no decision to cap RTÉ's advertising revenue (See RNW March 17). Earlier Mara apologized for late compliance with a tribunal order for financial information including details of two accounts in the Isle of Man, which he told the tribunal about last week. He said he had forgotten about the existence of the accounts because most of the money in the accounts had been moved back to Ireland where he paid tax. The tribunal has now adjourned until September 12. Previous Barry: Previous Ray Burke: Previous Century Radio: Previous Flood Tribunal: Previous Mara: Previous Stafford: RNW note: Most of our report is culled from The Irish Times which has been carrying full reports on the Flood Tribunal. For their reports follow the link below: Look for Flood Tribunal . Irish Times --search page 2001-08-02:
Former BBC Wales presenter
Lionel Kelloway has won the racial discrimination case he brought
against BBC Wales after his prize winning Landmark programme was axed.
He and a number of other broadcasters had complained that BBC Wales was discriminating against them because they had an English accent. (See RNW March 27, 2000). Kellaway has lived in Wales for more than 25 years. Previous BBC: Previous Kelloway. 2001-08-02:
Long-time Chicago sportscaster Les Grobstein
has been fired as overnight talk show host at WSCR-AM for "misusing
press credentials" according to Robert Feder
in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Feder quotes Harvey Wells, the Infinity-owned station's vice president and general manager, as saying the action was taken because Grobstein had violated Infinity's policies by "misusing press credentials for his own personal gain." Grobstein, who said he is looking for another radio post, said the incident involved coverage of a sports event earlier this month when a press pass issued to sister station WXRT-FM was not being used and Grobstein gave it to a free-lance reporter to help him tape interviews for use on WSCR-AM. "You can be dumb and you can be stupid," Grobstein told Feder. "I don't think I'm dumb, but I was obviously pretty stupid here." Previous Feder: Sun-Times Feder Report: 2001-08-02: The
latest BBC Programme Complaints Bulletin covering
April - June 2001, which has just been released, shows that the Corporation
dealt with 212 complaints concerning 144 items in the period; 39 complaints
were upheld (four of them partly) - 18.5% of the total.
They concerned 17 different items (12% of the total number of items). This compares with 783 during the 2000-2001 year of which 124 were upheld in all or part. In addition, The Governors' Programme Complaints Committee considered seven appeals, four relating to radio: Of these one relating to TV was upheld. Of the items where complaints were upheld, seven concerned fairness and accuracy of which two involved radio. These related to a BBC Radio 4 Appeal which said that the Indian Army captured Monte Cassino during WW2 when it was actually finally taken by the Poles and another BBC Radio 4 item on the PM programme. A listener complained that PM's report on the Irish referendum on the Nice treaty had failed to reflect the views of the "no" voters. Of the other 10 complaints upheld, those involving radio were: *one against Radio Cymru concerning dialogue in a drama series; *one against Radio Cornwall concerning a joke about Jewish cookery which was complained about as being anti-Semitic; *one about a Radio 5 Sunday Service broadcast including a surreptitious recording of a phone conversation with a civil servant; *one about a Radio 4 What Do They Know About Us? programme which failed to protect the identify of someone involved in a programme on the ease of obtaining personal details; *ne about a Radio 1 Sunday Surgery "drugs special" programme in which a guest expert made appoint in a way which implied that it was acceptable to lie to the police or courts. Previous BBC: BBC News release (links to Bulletin) 2001-08-01:
Former BBC Radio 1 producer John Walters
has died aged 63.
Walters, who was also a trumpeter with the Alan Price Set, teamed up with BBC DJ John Peel on Top Gear in 1969, subsequently working with him for 12 years. Walters also presented a number of shows on BBC radio himself, including Walters' Weekly on Radio 1 and Idle Thoughts on Radio 4. BBC Obituary: UK Guardian obituary: RNW Note:As a tribute to Walters. Radio 4 is repeating Can Chipmunks Sing on Saturday morning, (August 4:) 2001-08-01: Internet listening has nearly doubled since the start of the year according to MeasureCast whose Internet Radio Index is now 199 compared a base level of 100 at the start of the year; it rose by 5.5% in the week to July 29. MeasureCast CEO Ed Hardy commented, "The growing popularity of on-line radio listening during the past seven months proves that Internet radio is here to stay, and that there is enormous potential for ad revenue." "As more and more broadcasters begin or resume streaming, now is the time for the industry to band together to demonstrate to advertisers and ad agencies that streaming audio and video are powerful new media for promoting products and generating brand recall." WarpRadio.com was the leading Internet radio group in rankings by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL); its stations streamed a total of 401,310 hours. This compared to 274,799 for second-ranked SurferNETWORK and 200,306 for third-ranked CableMusic.com won third place. MEDIAmazing.com, which retained its top station ranking, had a TTSL of 159,291, which made it fourth ranked, and Virgin Radio claimed fifth place with a TTSL of 122,569. In the individual station ranking, the top four places were unchanged but fifth place was claimed by classic rock WFXZ-FM from Wilmington, North Carolina, which was ranked 14th the previous week; it pushed 3WK Underground radio down to 6th place. The top 5 ranked by Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) were (with previous week's TTSL and Cume persons (CP), a measure of the cumulative audience, in brackets): 1): Listener Formatted MediaAmazing TTSL 159,291 (153,401); CP 44,433 (43,128) - Position unchanged. 2): Adult Alternative Virgin Radio TTSL 106,315 (98,819); CP 17,113 (20,243) - Position unchanged 3): Sports-talk ESPN Radio TTSL 99,981 (98,598); CP 14,139 (14,150) -Position unchanged. 4): Internet only Classic Rock Radio Margaritaville TTSL 69,096 (69,180); CP 10,792 (10,784) - - Position unchanged. 5): Classic Rock WFXZ-FM TTSL 38,103(21,084)CP 6,098 (5,043) - Previously 14th. Previous MeasureCast ratings: MeasureCast web site: 2001-08-01: BBC World Service has reached agreement with IBM to design and implement a new digital production system for the organization, which is currently still editing tapes by hand splicing. The corporation is to introduce the new system, which is based on Jutel's RadioMan broadcast content management software, over the next two years. 35 organisations expressed interest in the project and IBM was selected from a shortlist of five. In all the World Service is expected to spend some £10 million over the next five years on the overhaul of its technology. Previous BBC. 2001-08-01: Britain's Broadcasting Watchdog, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, upheld no complaints against the country's radio stations in its latest bulletin compared to one in its previous bulletin and four in May. As last month, two complaints against TV were upheld with a third against TV partly upheld. In all the Commission received 121 complaints, including two concerning the same radio advert. Of these, 6 concerned fairness, one against TV being upheld and another against TV partly upheld; the only case against radio was rejected. The other 115 complaints concerned standards and one against TV was upheld but all ten concerning radio were rejected. Previous BSC: Previous BSC Complaints Bulletin: BSC web site (Note: This is a Flash 5 site: It links to the report in PDF format-117 kb). Links
note: As far as possible we provide site links to the previous related
story. Should these links not work, please advise us so we can sort
out the problem. Regarding external links, we give links where we can
but some newspapers and stations only keep items available for a limited
period or move them to a pay-per-use archive (typically after 7 or 14
days in the USA). Thus some links become outdated or sources you would
have to pay for or subscribe to access. See links
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